Load Flask AppBuilder data to DuckDB

Flask AppBuilder is a framework for building web applications with built-in security, database management, and automated REST API generation. Everything needed to build a working Flask AppBuilder → 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.

---

Build your Flask AppBuilder 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 Flask AppBuilder 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 Flask AppBuilder 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.

---

Flask AppBuilder API at a glance

These values come from the Flask AppBuilder API reference — the authoritative source if anything here looks out of date.

---

How do I authenticate with the Flask AppBuilder API?

Authentication is performed by passing a JWT or API Key as a Bearer token in the 'Authorization' header, e.g., 'Authorization: Bearer '. Login to obtain a JWT is performed via a POST request to the security login endpoint.

1. Get your credentials

To obtain credentials for Flask AppBuilder (FAB) REST API, you have two primary options: JSON Web Tokens (JWT) or long-lived API Keys. 1. JWT Authentication: - Perform a POST request to the login endpoint (default: /api/v1/security/login) with a JSON payload: {"username": "", "password": "", "provider": "db"}. - The response will contain an access_token and an optional refresh_token. 2. API Key Authentication: - Ensure FAB_API_KEY_ENABLED = True is set in your application's config.py. - Once enabled, you can manage keys through the dedicated security API endpoints (e.g., POST /api/v1/security/api_keys/ to create a key). Note that keys are returned only upon creation.

2. Add them to .dlt/secrets.toml

Copy
[sources.flask_appbuilder_source]
api_key = "sst_<your_api_key_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.

---

What Flask AppBuilder data can I load into DuckDB?

These are the Flask AppBuilder endpoints dlt can load into DuckDB:

---

How do I load only new Flask AppBuilder records?

Flask AppBuilder exposes updated_at (if model schema supports it; framework does not natively enforce) on api/v1/[resource], 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.

Copy
{"name": "model_list", "endpoint": {
    "path": "api/v1/[resource]",
    "data_selector": "result",
    "incremental": {"cursor_path": "updated_at (if model schema supports it; framework does not natively enforce)", "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.

---

What does the generated Flask AppBuilder pipeline look like?

A standard dlt REST API pipeline — the same code you would write by hand, loading /api/v1/security/login and /api/v1/security/api_keys/ from the Flask AppBuilder API into DuckDB:

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

@dlt.source
def flask_appbuilder_source(api_key=dlt.secrets.value):
    config: RESTAPIConfig = {
        "client": {
            "base_url": "http://localhost:8080/api/v1",
            "auth": {"type": "bearer", "token": api_key},
        },
        "resources": [
            {"name": "model_list", "endpoint": {"path": "api/v1/[resource]", "data_selector": "result"}},
            {"name": "model_item", "endpoint": {"path": "api/v1/[resource]/[pk]", "data_selector": "result"}}
        ],
    }
    yield from rest_api_resources(config)


def load_flask_appbuilder_to_duckdb() -> None:
    pipeline = dlt.pipeline(
        pipeline_name="flask_appbuilder_pipeline",
        destination="duckdb",
        dataset_name="flask_appbuilder_data",
    )
    load_info = pipeline.run(flask_appbuilder_source())
    print(load_info)


if __name__ == "__main__":
    load_flask_appbuilder_to_duckdb()

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

---

How do I query Flask AppBuilder 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):

Copy
import dlt

data = dlt.pipeline("flask_appbuilder_pipeline").dataset()
df = data.model_list.df()
print(df.head())

SQL:

Copy
SELECT * FROM flask_appbuilder_data.model_list LIMIT 10;

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

---

How do I deploy the Flask AppBuilder 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 Flask AppBuilder loads into governed, documented models.
• Visualize & share — explore data in notebooks and publish live dashboards instead of static screenshots.

Book a demo →

---

What other destinations can I load Flask AppBuilder 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.

---

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