Reference / MCP tool reference
Reference
Look up a company
lookup_company: Looks up one company by Companies House number, domain or name and returns its Companies House fields and compliance facts, and for a signed-in caller the contacts held there by job level.
Looks up one company by Companies House number, domain or name and returns its Companies House fields and compliance facts, and for a signed-in caller the contacts held there by job level. It returns no contact details: use enrich_contact for one known person, or count_audience for everyone at the company. Free and needs no account, though the contacts held are a single company count that needs an account (null when signed out). Lawful basis is UK GDPR Article 6(1)(f) legitimate interests; email audiences include corporate subscribers only by default (PECR), so sole traders and ordinary partnerships are left out unless the toggle is changed.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Tool name | lookup_company |
| Position in tools/list | 18 of 22 |
| Cost | Free |
| Scope | None. Works without an account. |
| Annotations | readOnlyHint true, destructiveHint false, idempotentHint true, openWorldHint false |
| Kind | Read only; idempotent, not destructive, closed world |
| REST equivalent | POST /v1/companies/lookup |
Input
The schema sets additionalProperties to false, so a member that is not listed is refused.
| Member | Type | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
company_number | string | no | Eight characters in upper case, such as 05046417 or SC123456. |
domain | string | no | |
name | string | no | |
town | string | no | Narrows a name search. |
Example call
The params of a tools/call request:
{
"name": "lookup_company",
"arguments": {
"company_number": "12345678"
}
}Output
The result carries structuredContent that matches this schema, and one line of text that leads with the number.
| Member | Type | Always present | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
match_confidence | number (0 to 1) | yes | |
dataset_version | string | yes | The immutable weekly build a count is bound to, such as 2026-W39. The last 52 stay queryable. |
company | object | yes | |
company.companies_house_number | string or null | yes | |
company.name | string | yes | |
company.status | string | yes | |
company.type | string | yes | |
company.subscriber_class | enum: ltd, plc, llp, scottish_partnership, public_body, charity_incorporated, sole_trader, ordinary_partnership, and 1 more | yes | |
company.incorporation_date | string (date) or null | yes | |
company.sic_2007 | array of SicCode | yes | |
company.employee_band | string or null | yes | |
company.turnover_band | string or null | yes | |
company.website_domain | string or null | yes | |
company.registered_office | object | yes | |
contacts_held | integer (0 or more) or under 10 or suppressed or null | yes | Contacts we hold at the company: a single-company count, so signed-in callers only (null otherwise) and logged. Trial callers see it rounded. |
contacts_by_level | array of LevelCount or null | yes | The same count by job level, most senior first, with Level not known last; null when signed out. |
contacts_by_level[].level | string | yes | |
contacts_by_level[].contacts | integer (0 or more) or under 10 or suppressed | yes | A whole number; "under 10" when disclosure control withholds a small cell; or "suppressed" when secondary suppression hides a cell of 10 or more in a cross-tab or breakdown, so totals cannot be differenced. Anonymous and trial callers see cells rounded to the nearest 5. |
disclosure | Disclosure | yes | Whether these numbers are exact or protected: "under 10" cells, rounding to 5 and secondary suppression for anonymous and trial callers. |
disclosure.level | enum: exact, rounded | yes | exact for authenticated paid callers; rounded for anonymous and trial callers, whose counts under 100 and every cell are rounded to the nearest 5. |
disclosure.rounded_to | integer or null | yes | 5 when numbers are rounded; null when they are exact. |
disclosure.secondary_suppression | boolean | yes | True when cross-tab or breakdown cells of 10 or more were hidden as "suppressed" so totals cannot be differenced. |
disclosure.notes | array of string | yes | |
compliance | CompanyCompliance | yes | The company facts of the compliance object, for results with no contact. |
compliance.lawful_basis | enum: legitimate_interests_art6_1_f | yes | |
compliance.subscriber_class | enum: ltd, plc, llp, scottish_partnership, public_body, charity_incorporated, sole_trader, ordinary_partnership, and 1 more | yes | |
compliance.corporate_subscriber | boolean | yes | |
compliance.email_marketing_basis | enum: pecr_corporate_subscriber, consent_required | yes | |
compliance.subscriber_evidence | object | yes | |
compliance.provenance | object | yes | |
compliance.attribution | string or null | yes | |
credits_charged | 0 | yes |
Errors
A failed call returns isError true. The text content leads with the sentence a person acts on, then the whole problem as JSON, with code, detail, next_step and did_you_mean. A 401 and a step-up 403 are answered at HTTP level so the client can start authorisation. See Errors.