🏛️ companies-house-cli

UK company data in your terminal. Built for AI agents, still useful for humans.

ch search "Revolut"                     # Find companies by name
ch info 09215862                        # Company profile
ch officers 09215862                    # Directors & secretaries
ch filings 09215862 --type accounts     # Filing history
ch psc 09215862                         # Beneficial owners
ch search-person "Nik Storonsky"        # Find a person across companies

Install

npm install -g @shan8851/companies-house-cli

Or from source:

git clone https://github.com/shan8851/companies-house-cli.git
cd companies-house-cli
pnpm install && pnpm build
pnpm link --global

API Key

A free API key is required. Takes 30 seconds:

1. Register at developer.company-information.service.gov.uk
2. Create an application → select REST API key
3. Set it:

export COMPANIES_HOUSE_API_KEY=your_key
# or add to .env in your project directory

Commands

| Command | What it does | | --- | --- | | ch search <query> | Search companies by name | | ch info <number> | Company profile — address, status, SIC codes, incorporation date | | ch officers <number> | Directors, secretaries, appointments | | ch filings <number> | Filing history with optional --type filter and --include-links | | ch psc <number> | Persons with significant control (beneficial owners) | | ch search-person <name> | Find a person across all UK companies with appointment enrichment | | ch charges <number> | Registered charges and mortgages | | ch insolvency <number> | Insolvency case history |

Company numbers are automatically zero-padded — 9215862 becomes 09215862.

All list commands support --items-per-page, --start-index, and --all for pagination.

Human-readable output uses ANSI styling when stdout is a TTY. Use --no-color or set NO_COLOR to disable styling explicitly. Styling is disabled automatically for non-TTY output.

Agent Integration

The CLI now defaults to text in a TTY and JSON when piped.

ch search "Revolut" | jq                # JSON when piped by default
ch search "Revolut" --json              # Explicit JSON
ch info 09215862 --text                 # Explicit text
ch officers 09215862 --all --json | jq
ch --json info 09215862                 # Compatibility alias still supported

Canonical usage going forward is subcommand-local --json / --text, but root-level ch --json ... and ch --text ... each remain supported as a compatibility alias.

Every successful JSON response now uses the aligned envelope:

{
  "ok": true,
  "schemaVersion": "1",
  "command": "officers",
  "requestedAt": "2026-03-25T17:00:00.000Z",
  "data": {
    "input": { "companyNumber": "09215862" },
    "pagination": {
      "startIndex": 0,
      "itemsPerPage": 10,
      "returnedCount": 10,
      "totalResults": 12,
      "fetchedAll": false
    },
    "officers": [...]
  }
}

Errors use the same top-level contract and are written to stdout in JSON mode:

{
  "ok": false,
  "schemaVersion": "1",
  "command": "search",
  "requestedAt": "2026-03-25T17:00:00.000Z",
  "error": {
    "code": "INVALID_INPUT",
    "message": "Expected a positive integer.",
    "retryable": false
  }
}

Exit codes are explicit:

• 0 success
• 2 bad input or not found
• 3 auth, upstream, or rate-limit failures
• 4 internal unexpected failures

Works with OpenClaw, Claude Desktop MCP, or any agent that can shell out.

Migration Note

The JSON output contract changed in this release to align with rail-cli and tfl-cli.

Previous releases returned command metadata like input and pagination at the top level. They now live under data.input and data.pagination.

If you parse ch JSON programmatically, update consumers accordingly.

Examples

# Quick company lookup
$ ch search "Monzo"
07446590  Monzo Bank Limited              Active    LONDON
10561407  Monzo Support Limited           Active    LONDON

# Who runs Revolut?
$ ch officers 09215862
Nikolay Storonsky    Director    Appointed 2015-07-01    Active
Vladyslav Yatsenko   Director    Appointed 2015-07-01    Active
Martin Gilbert       Director    Appointed 2021-09-01    Active
...

# Get latest accounts with download links
$ ch filings 09215862 --type accounts --include-links
2024-12-15  Full accounts  accounts  [PDF: https://...]
2023-12-14  Full accounts  accounts  [PDF: https://...]
...

# Agent-friendly JSON when piped
$ ch search "Revolut" | jq
{
  "ok": true,
  "schemaVersion": "1",
  "command": "search",
  "requestedAt": "2026-03-25T17:00:00.000Z",
  "data": {
    "input": {
      "query": "Revolut",
      "restrictions": null
    },
    "pagination": {
      "fetchedAll": false,
      "itemsPerPage": 10,
      "returnedCount": 2,
      "startIndex": 0,
      "totalResults": 2
    },
    "companies": [
      {
        "companyNumber": "08804411",
        "name": "REVOLUT LTD"
      }
    ]
  }
}

# Explicit JSON for a non-paginated command
$ ch info 09215862 --json
{
  "ok": true,
  "schemaVersion": "1",
  "command": "info",
  "requestedAt": "2026-03-25T17:00:00.000Z",
  "data": {
    "input": {
      "companyNumber": "09215862"
    },
    "company": {
      "companyName": "REVOLUT LTD"
    }
  }
}

# Structured JSON error on stdout
$ ch search "Revolut" --items-per-page foo --json
{
  "ok": false,
  "schemaVersion": "1",
  "command": "search",
  "requestedAt": "2026-03-25T17:00:00.000Z",
  "error": {
    "code": "INVALID_INPUT",
    "message": "Expected a positive integer.",
    "retryable": false
  }
}

# Find someone across all UK companies
$ ch search-person "Tim Cook"
Tim Cook    Director    Apple (UK) Limited (03288373)
Tim Cook    Secretary   Cook Ventures Ltd (12345678)
...

Development

pnpm typecheck    # Type check
pnpm lint         # ESLint
pnpm test         # Vitest
pnpm check        # All of the above

License

MIT — Built by @shan8851