Load Cato Networks data to DuckDB

Cato Networks provides a GraphQL-based API for automating management and retrieving data from the Cato SASE platform. Everything needed to build a working Cato Networks → DuckDB pipeline is on this page: the API's base URL, authentication, endpoints, pagination and incremental field — plus a prompt that hands the whole job to your coding agent.

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Build your Cato Networks to DuckDB pipeline

Paste this prompt into Claude, Codex, or Cursor. The agent does the rest.

PromptCopy prompt
Run uvx dlthub-init@latest to build a pipeline from Cato Networks to DuckDB and run it on dltHub

That scaffolds a dltHub workspace and installs the dltHub AI harness — the project rules, the secrets-management skill, and the dlt MCP server your agent needs to work safely. From there it reads the Cato Networks API, proposes the endpoints to load, then writes, runs and validates the pipeline while you review rather than type. Credentials are inspected through MCP tools, so your agent never reads secrets.toml itself. How the LLM-native workflow works →

Prefer to write it yourself? Every fact the agent uses is below.

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Cato Networks API at a glance

These values come from the Cato Networks API reference — the authoritative source if anything here looks out of date.

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How do I authenticate with the Cato Networks API?

Authentication is performed using an API key provided in the 'x-api-key' HTTP header for all requests. The API key is generated within the Cato Management Application (CMA).

1. Get your credentials

1. Log in to the Cato Management Application (CMA). 2. Navigate to Resources > Admin API Keys (or Service API Keys for non-admin service integrations). 3. Click New to create a key. 4. Enter a name, set required permissions (View or Edit), optionally configure IP restrictions or expiration, and click Apply. 5. A pop-up will display the API Key value; copy it immediately as it cannot be retrieved again. 6. Note your CMA Account ID (often visible in the CMA URL or under Administration > Account > General Info) for use in API requests.

2. Add them to .dlt/secrets.toml

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[sources.cato_networks_source]
api_key = "REPLACE_ME"

dlt reads this file automatically at runtime. With the harness, the setup-secrets skill prompts you for the values and never handles the raw credential in chat. For production, see setting up credentials with dlt.

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What Cato Networks data can I load into DuckDB?

These are the Cato Networks endpoints dlt can load into DuckDB:

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How do I load only new Cato Networks records?

Cato Networks exposes from on api/v1/graphql2, so dlt can request only the records that changed since the last run. Set it as the cursor_path and dlt tracks the high-water mark for you between runs.

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{"name": "entity_lookup", "endpoint": {
    "path": "api/v1/graphql2",
    "data_selector": "data.entityLookup",
    "incremental": {"cursor_path": "from", "initial_value": "2024-01-01T00:00:00Z"},
}}

On the first run dlt loads everything from initial_value; on every run after that it requests only what changed and appends with write_disposition="merge" if you set a primary key. See incremental loading.

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What does the generated Cato Networks pipeline look like?

A standard dlt REST API pipeline — the same code you would write by hand, loading eventsFeed and accountMetrics from the Cato Networks API into DuckDB:

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import dlt
from dlt.sources.rest_api import RESTAPIConfig, rest_api_resources

@dlt.source
def cato_networks_source(api_key=dlt.secrets.value):
    config: RESTAPIConfig = {
        "client": {
            "base_url": "https://api.catonetworks.com/api/v1/graphql2",
            "auth": {"type": "api_key", "api_key": api_key, "name": "x-api-key", "location": "header"},
        },
        "resources": [
            {"name": "entity_lookup", "endpoint": {"path": "api/v1/graphql2", "data_selector": "data.entityLookup"}},
            {"name": "events_feed", "endpoint": {"path": "api/v1/graphql2", "data_selector": "data.eventsFeed.eventsFeedAccountRecords"}}
        ],
    }
    yield from rest_api_resources(config)


def load_cato_networks_to_duckdb() -> None:
    pipeline = dlt.pipeline(
        pipeline_name="cato_networks_pipeline",
        destination="duckdb",
        dataset_name="cato_networks_data",
    )
    load_info = pipeline.run(cato_networks_source())
    print(load_info)


if __name__ == "__main__":
    load_cato_networks_to_duckdb()

Run it with python cato_networks_pipeline.py. The agent iterates on this until it loads cleanly — you review and approve, rather than write it from scratch.

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How do I query Cato Networks data in DuckDB?

dlt creates one table per resource. Query the loaded data with Python or SQL — or ask your agent to, through the MCP server's execute_sql_query tool.

Python (pandas DataFrame):

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import dlt

data = dlt.pipeline("cato_networks_pipeline").dataset()
df = data.entity_lookup.df()
print(df.head())

SQL:

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SELECT * FROM cato_networks_data.entity_lookup LIMIT 10;

See querying your data with dataset and exploring it in marimo notebooks.

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How do I deploy the Cato Networks to DuckDB pipeline in production?

The pipeline runs locally, which is ideal for prototyping and one-off analysis. When you need it on a schedule, monitored on every load, and shared with your team, deploy the same dlt code on the dltHub platform — no infrastructure to maintain. The prompt above already ends with "run it on dltHub", so your agent can take it there directly.

• Deploy & schedule — run the pipeline as a managed job with automatic retries.
• Monitor — observable job queues, alerting, and load metrics for every run.
• Transform — promote raw Cato Networks loads into governed, documented models.
• Visualize & share — explore data in notebooks and publish live dashboards instead of static screenshots.

Book a demo →

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What other destinations can I load Cato Networks data to?

dlt loads into any of these — only the destination argument changes:

Set dlt.pipeline(destination="snowflake") and add credentials in .dlt/secrets.toml. On the dltHub platform the same pipeline runs against a managed Iceberg lakehouse. See the full destinations list.

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Next steps

• Ready for production? Book a demo of the dltHub platform →
• dlt LLM-native workflow docs
• REST API source reference
• Join the dlt community on Slack