FRED economic data API boundary

Evidence-backed facts

1. FRED API endpoints expose economic series, observations, categories, releases, sources, tags, maps, and historical vintage dates. informative
2. API v1 requests require an application-specific key that must be kept outside public files and passed according to FRED documentation. informative
3. FRED and ALFRED distinguish current observations from historical real-time vintages, so a query must declare the requested revision perspective. informative
4. FRED aggregates data from multiple sources and provides no guarantee of uninterrupted, error-free, complete, or investment-suitable results. informative

Primary sources