libfec

The libfec Cache ​

By default, the libfec will cache FEC files as they are downloaded. Individual .fec files never change, and downloading filings on every export can take a long time.

The libfec export command will automatically save downloaded FEC filings into your cache directory. You can use the libfec cache info command to see where this default libfec cache directory is located on your machine:

bash
$ libfec cache info
Cache Information

  /Users/alex/.cache/libfec/cache

  FEC filings cached:    34,295 .fec files (15.41 GiB)
  Daily zip meta files:  335
  Bulk data database:    140.45 MiB  /Users/alex/.cache/libfec/cache/.bulk-data.db
  API cache database:    73.56 MiB  /Users/alex/.cache/libfec/cache/.api-cache.db

  Bulk Data
    Candidates (2026)
      2026 — modified 9 hours ago, checked 4 minutes ago
    Committees (2026)
      2026 — modified 9 hours ago, checked 4 minutes ago
    Candidate-Committee Linkages (2022, 2024, 2026)
      2026 — modified 1 day ago, checked 12 hours ago
    Operating Expenditures (2026)
      2026 — modified 24 days ago, checked 22 days ago

Changing the cache directory ​

You can configure the cache directory in two ways — first with the LIBFEC_CACHE_DIRECTORY environment variable:

bash
LIBFEC_CACHE_DIRECTORY=$PWD/cache libfec export \
  --election 2024 CA40 \
  -o ca40.db

This will create a new cache/ directory and cache 30 matching filings into this folder.

Alternatively, you can use the --cache-directory flag:

bash
libfec export \
  --cache-directory=cache \
  --election 2024 CA40 \
  -o ca40.db