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# Pappers Fr Pappers API

The Pappers API retrieves information and documents on French companies and associations from their SIREN or SIRET number. It returns company records covering legal status, financials, representatives, establishments, BODACC publications and trademarks; searches companies, directors, beneficial owners, documents and publications by criteria; autocompletes company names; and builds a company's ownership cartography. It also downloads official documents as PDF or XLSX, including Pappers, INPI and INSEE extracts, articles of association, beneficial-owner declarations and solvency reports, screens individuals for politically exposed person status and international sanctions, and maintains director monitoring lists. Usage is metered in credits that Pappers calls jetons, drawn from either a monthly subscription or a pay as you go balance.

## For AI agents

Look up French companies and associations by SIREN or SIRET, search directors and beneficial owners, download official registry documents, and screen individuals for sanctions.

## Scope

Covers French company and association records, criteria searches, official document downloads, sanctions screening and director monitoring lists. Does not handle company creation, filing submissions, or non-French registries.

## Capabilities

- Retrieve complete company or association records by SIREN or SIRET, including legal status, financials, representatives, establishments, BODACC publications and trademarks
- Search companies, directors, beneficial owners, documents and BODACC publications by criteria
- Autocomplete company names from the start of a text search
- Retrieve published annual accounts and build a company's ownership cartography
- Download official documents as PDF or XLSX, including Pappers, INPI and INSEE extracts, articles of association, beneficial-owner declarations and solvency reports
- Screen an individual for politically exposed person status and international sanctions
- Maintain director monitoring lists and track credit (jetons) consumption

## Use cases

### French Company Due Diligence

Perform due diligence on French companies by SIREN or SIRET. GET /entreprise returns full company profile including legal form, capital, financials, representatives, and all establishments. Essential for B2B onboarding, vendor risk assessment, and compliance checks in the French market.

Example prompt: GET /entreprise?api_token=YOUR_KEY&siren=443061841 to retrieve complete company profile

### Multi-Location Company Mapping

Map all physical locations (etablissements) for a French company by providing SIREN. The etablissements array returns full address, activity codes (NAF/APE), and operational status for each location. Use SIRET parameter to retrieve a single establishment.

Example prompt: GET /entreprise?api_token=YOUR_KEY&siren=443061841 returns all etablissements array; use &siret for single location

### VAT Number Validation

Validate French EU VAT intracommunautaire numbers against the European Commission registry. Set validite_tva_intracommunautaire=true to receive validation status in the response. Critical for cross-border invoicing and EU compliance.

Example prompt: GET /entreprise?api_token=YOUR_KEY&siren=443061841&validite_tva_intracommunautaire=true

### Trademark and Brand Research

Retrieve registered trademarks (marques) for French companies when marques=true. Returns trademark names, registration numbers, and status. Useful for brand research, competitive intelligence, and IP due diligence.

Example prompt: GET /entreprise?api_token=YOUR_KEY&siren=443061841&marques=true

### Agent-Driven French Business Intelligence via Jentic

An AI agent conducting due diligence in the French market can look up companies, validate VAT, and retrieve trademarks through Jentic without exposing the api_token in agent context. Jentic resolves intents like 'look up this French company' to the right Pappers endpoint.

Example prompt: Search Jentic for 'look up French company by SIREN', load the GET /entreprise schema, and execute

## Key endpoints

| Method | Path | Description |
| --- | --- | --- |
| GET | /entreprise | Retrieve all available information on a company by SIREN or SIRET |
| GET | /association | Retrieve all available information on an association |
| GET | /recherche | Search companies matching criteria |
| GET | /recherche-dirigeants | Search company directors matching criteria |
| GET | /recherche-beneficiaires | Search beneficial owners matching criteria |
| GET | /recherche-documents | Search documents matching criteria |
| GET | /recherche-publications | Search BODACC publications matching criteria |
| GET | /suggestions | Autocomplete company names from the start of a text search |
| GET | /entreprise/comptes | Retrieve a company's published annual accounts |
| GET | /entreprise/cartographie | Retrieve the data behind a company's ownership and management cartography |
| GET | /document/telechargement | Download a PDF or XLSX document from its token |
| GET | /document/extrait_pappers | Download a company's Pappers extract by SIREN or SIRET |
| GET | /document/extrait_inpi | Download a company's INPI extract by SIREN or SIRET |
| GET | /document/avis_situation_insee | Download a company's INSEE situation notice by SIREN or SIRET |
| GET | /document/statuts | Download a company's latest available articles of association |
| GET | /document/declaration_beneficiaires_effectifs | Download a company's beneficial-owner declaration by SIREN |
| GET | /document/rapport_solvabilite | Download a company's solvency report by SIREN |
| GET | /conformite/personne_physique | Check an individual for politically exposed person status and international sanctions |
| GET | /suivi-jetons | Retrieve credit (jetons) usage and remaining balance |
| POST | /liste | Add one or more directors to a monitoring list |
| DELETE | /liste | Delete one or more notifications from a list |
| POST | /liste-informations | Add information to one or more notifications |

## Key resources

- **Entreprise** — Complete company information including legal, financial, and establishment data, plus annual accounts and ownership cartography
- **Association** — Records for French associations, including their JOAFE publications
- **Recherche** — Criteria-based search over companies, directors, beneficial owners, documents and BODACC publications, plus name autocomplete
- **Document** — Official PDF and XLSX downloads: Pappers, INPI and INSEE extracts, articles of association, beneficial-owner declarations and solvency reports
- **Conformite** — Politically exposed person and international sanctions screening for an individual
- **Liste** — Director monitoring lists and their notifications, the only part of the API an agent can write to
- **Suivi-jetons** — Credit (jetons) usage: initial monthly subscription credits, credits used, and remaining pay as you go credits

## Why Jentic

- **Setup:** Wiring the Pappers API by hand means threading its api_token through the query string of every call except the autocomplete route, shaping the company, search, document and compliance requests separately, and reading the French field names in every response yourself. Through Jentic you install once, import Pappers from the API Directory, store the token once, and your agent calls it.
- **Permission scoping:** Pappers carries the company identifier in the query string rather than in the URL path, so scoping is by operation: limit the agent to the operations it needs, such as the company lookup and the searches. Nineteen of the 22 operations only read; the three that change state manage director monitoring lists, so withholding POST /liste, DELETE /liste and POST /liste-informations keeps the agent to retrieval.
- **Credential handling:** Your Pappers api_token is stored once, encrypted, by your own Jentic One instance and injected at execution time. It never enters the agent's prompt, logs, or context.
- **Discovery method:** Agents search Jentic by intent such as 'look up a French company' or 'validate a French VAT number', and Jentic returns the matching Pappers operation with its input schema so the agent calls the right endpoint without browsing the reference docs.

## Related APIs

- **OpenCorporates API** — Open database of companies and corporate data, with search over companies, officers, filings and jurisdictions, where Pappers covers French companies only
- **UK Companies House Public Data API** — The UK's official Companies House registry API for company filings and directors, complementing Pappers' French business data for cross-border research.

## FAQ

### What authentication does the Pappers API use?

The Pappers API takes an API token in the api_token query parameter, and Pappers' own documentation states that you must supply your API key in your requests. Note a gap in the source specification: it declares no security scheme at all, and instead models the credential one level down, as a required api_token query parameter on 21 of its 22 operations. The single exception is deliberate rather than an omission: GET /suggestions states that it does not require an authentication token, so that it can be integrated directly into a front end. Through Jentic, your api_token is stored encrypted by your own Jentic One instance and injected at execution time, so it never enters the agent's prompt, logs, or context.

### What is the difference between SIREN and SIRET?

SIREN is a 9-digit identifier for a French company (legal entity), while SIRET is a 14-digit identifier for a specific establishment (location). Use siren parameter to get all establishments or siret parameter to get a single establishment in the etablissement key.

### Can I validate French VAT numbers?

Yes. Set validite_tva_intracommunautaire=true and the API will validate the company's TVA intracommunautaire number against the European Commission registry. The validation result appears in the validite_tva_intracommunautaire field of the response.

### How do I retrieve company trademarks?

Set marques=true in the request to include registered trademarks in the response. This returns the marques array with trademark names, registration numbers, and status for IP research and brand due diligence.

### What are partial disclosure companies?

Some French companies have opted for partial disclosure (diffusion partielle) and publish limited information. Set integrer_diffusions_partielles=true to receive available partial data for these companies rather than an empty response.

### How does Pappers meter usage of its API?

Pappers meters the API in credits, which it calls jetons, drawn from either a monthly subscription or a pay as you go balance. Its published consumption table charges 1 credit for a company record, 0.1 credit per search result, 3 credits for a PDF or XLSX document such as an INPI, Pappers or INSEE extract, 2 credits for a compliance check, and nothing for tracking your own usage. A pack of 100 free credits is granted once when an API account is created from a professional email address. GET /suivi-jetons returns your initial subscription credits, the credits you have used, and your remaining pay as you go credits.

### Is there a Pappers MCP server?

Yes. Pappers runs its own MCP server, advertised as 35 tools spanning its Entreprises, Justice, Immo and Politique data. You can also connect the Pappers API directly through Jentic: your agent gets this API's full 22 operation surface from the specification without loading another server's tool definitions into its context, your api_token is injected at call time by your self-hosted Jentic One instance instead of sitting inside the server URL in an MCP config file, and your own rules decide which operations the agent may call.

### Can I limit what my agent is allowed to do with the Pappers API?

Yes. Because you run Jentic One yourself, your own rules decide which operations and credentials your agent may use. Pappers carries the company identifier in the query string rather than in the URL path, so rules bound which operations your agent may call, not which company it may look at. Of the 22 operations, 19 only read data; the three that change state are POST /liste and DELETE /liste, which manage director monitoring lists, and POST /liste-informations, which annotates their notifications. A read-only agent is therefore a matter of allowing the lookup, search and download operations and withholding those three.