Add `--json` output to `libfec info` for machine-readable metadata

[hodgesmr]

Right now libfec info <filing_id> prints a human-pretty summary:

libfec info 1918948
FEC-1918948 F3N October Quarterly by Colby Watson for Congress (C00920652)
Covering 2025-07-01 to 2025-09-30

Report of Receipts and Disbursements for an Authorized Committee
https://docquery.fec.gov/cgi-bin/forms/C00920652/1918948
v8.5 1.28 KiB filed with FECfile 8.5.0.0(f33)

This is nice for eyeballing, but it’s hard to consume from scripts/tools.

Consider a machine-readable output mode:

Proposal

Add a --json flag (or similar) to libfec info that prints structured metadata derived from the filing header and cover records.

• Default output remains unchanged (human pretty format).
• --json outputs only JSON (no extra commentary), suitable for jq, pandas, etc.
• Include a libfec_schema_version field so the JSON contract can evolve without breaking downstream users.
• Include a libfec_version field for reproducibility.

Example JSON output

Note: this is just a hand-made example, not the exact schema that would map to the header fields.

{
  "libfec_version": "0.0.1"
  "libfec_schema_version": 1,
  "filing_id": 1918948,
  "form_type": "F3N",
  "report_title": "October Quarterly",
  "committee": {
    "name": "Colby Watson for Congress",
    "fec_id": "C00920652"
  },
  "coverage": {
    "from": "2025-07-01",
    "to": "2025-09-30"
  },
  "document_url": "https://docquery.fec.gov/cgi-bin/forms/C00920652/1918948",
  "hdr": {  # does this need its own metadata to identify type? 
    "record_type": "HDR",
    "ef_type": null,
    "fec_version": "8.5",
    "soft_name": "FECfile",
    "soft_ver": "8.5.0.0",
    "batch_number": null,  # nulls feels weird given the shape of this changes
    "received_date": null,
    "report_number": null,
    "name_delim": null,
    "comment": null
  },
}

If some fields aren’t available for a given filing type, decide to omit them or set them to null... whichever fits project style best.

Opening this issue as a conversation-starter.

[asg017]

I dig this idea! There is a --format json option for libfec info but I haven't implemented it yet. Having --json alias to -f json seems reasonable. Totally cool with how that JSON looks, and a schema version makes a lot of sense.

Only think I would add is that you can provide multiple FEC filings to libfec info, so maybe it should output an array of JSON object if multiple filings are provided. And we can also copy the same "filing resolution" logic in libfec export for this, so one could do:

libfec info --form-type=F3 C00920652

To get all F3 filings filed by C00920652, and output info JSON for each filing in an array.