Load DVLA Authentication API data to DuckDB

The DVLA API provides secure access to vehicle and driver licensing data through a suite of RESTful services that require API key authentication and, in some cases, additional JWT-based user authentication. Everything needed to build a working DVLA Authentication API → 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 DVLA Authentication API 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 DVLA Authentication API 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 DVLA Authentication API 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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DVLA Authentication API API at a glance

These values come from the DVLA Authentication API API reference — the authoritative source if anything here looks out of date.

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How do I authenticate with the DVLA Authentication API API?

The DVLA employs a two-step authentication process. First, retrieve a JSON Web Token (JWT) by calling the Authentication API with a username and password, then include the JWT and your API key in the headers of subsequent requests to secure APIs.

1. Get your credentials

DVLA API access requires an onboarding process facilitated through the DVLA API Developer Portal. Initial API keys are provided by the DVLA following successful onboarding and after the user changes their one-time password. You must register and manage your account via the official portal to receive these credentials. Once onboarded, you can authenticate via the Authentication API using your username and password to receive a JSON Web Token (JWT), which is required alongside your API key for subsequent requests.

2. Add them to .dlt/secrets.toml

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[sources.dvla_authentication_api_source]
dvla_api_key = "your_initial_or_renewed_api_key_here"
dvla_username = "your_username_here"
dvla_password = "your_password_here"

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 DVLA Authentication API data can I load into DuckDB?

These are the DVLA Authentication API endpoints dlt can load into DuckDB:

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How do I load only new DVLA Authentication API records?

The DVLA Authentication API API reference does not document a timestamp or sequence field for these endpoints, so there is nothing to advertise here as verified. Pick a field from the endpoints table above that increases with every write, then set it as the cursor_path.

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{"name": "authentication", "endpoint": {
    "path": "thirdparty-access/v1/authenticate",
    # Replace with a field that increases on every write.
    "incremental": {"cursor_path": "REPLACE_ME", "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 DVLA Authentication API pipeline look like?

A standard dlt REST API pipeline — the same code you would write by hand, loading /v1/authenticate and /v1/new-api-key from the DVLA Authentication API API into DuckDB:

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

@dlt.source
def dvla_authentication_api_source(api_key=dlt.secrets.value):
    config: RESTAPIConfig = {
        "client": {
            "base_url": "https://driver-vehicle-licensing.api.gov.uk",
            "auth": {"type": "api_key", "api_key": api_key, "name": "Authorization", "location": "header"},
        },
        "resources": [
            {"name": "authentication", "endpoint": {"path": "thirdparty-access/v1/authenticate"}},
            {"name": "vehicle_details", "endpoint": {"path": "vehicle-enquiry/v1/vehicles"}}
        ],
    }
    yield from rest_api_resources(config)


def load_dvla_authentication_api_to_duckdb() -> None:
    pipeline = dlt.pipeline(
        pipeline_name="dvla_authentication_api_pipeline",
        destination="duckdb",
        dataset_name="dvla_authentication_api_data",
    )
    load_info = pipeline.run(dvla_authentication_api_source())
    print(load_info)


if __name__ == "__main__":
    load_dvla_authentication_api_to_duckdb()

Run it with python dvla_authentication_api_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 DVLA Authentication API 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("dvla_authentication_api_pipeline").dataset()
df = data.authentication.df()
print(df.head())

SQL:

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SELECT * FROM dvla_authentication_api_data.authentication LIMIT 10;

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

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How do I deploy the DVLA Authentication API 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 DVLA Authentication API 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 DVLA Authentication API 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