Load FTP API data to DuckDB

FTP API is a RESTful service that enables programmatic management and transfer operations on FTP/SFTP servers via standard HTTP requests. Everything needed to build a working FTP 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.

---

Build your FTP 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 FTP 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 FTP 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.

---

FTP API API at a glance

These values come from the FTP API API documentation. Check them against the vendor's current reference before relying on them in production.

---

How do I authenticate with the FTP API API?

The API uses HTTP headers to pass FTP credentials, requiring 'username', 'password', 'ftp-host', 'port', and 'ftp-type' in every request.

1. Get your credentials

Most FTP-related REST APIs authenticate via API keys or Basic Authentication. To obtain credentials: 1) Log in to your FTP server or service's WebAdmin/Control Panel UI. 2) Navigate to a section labeled 'API Keys', 'Server Manager', or 'Account Settings'. 3) Generate a new API key or note your existing administrative username and password. 4) For API keys, copy the key immediately upon creation, as it is often masked or non-retrievable afterward. For Basic Auth, ensure your administrative account has 'REST API access' permissions enabled.

2. Add them to .dlt/secrets.toml

Copy
[sources.ftp_api_source]
access_token = "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.

---

What FTP API data can I load into DuckDB?

These are the FTP API endpoints dlt can load into DuckDB:

---

How do I load only new FTP API records?

The FTP 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.

Copy
{"name": "files", "endpoint": {
    "path": "ftp/download",
    # 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.

---

What does the generated FTP API pipeline look like?

A standard dlt REST API pipeline — the same code you would write by hand, loading users and jobs from the FTP API API into DuckDB:

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

@dlt.source
def ftp_api_source(access_token=dlt.secrets.value):
    config: RESTAPIConfig = {
        "client": {
            "base_url": "https://www.ftp-api.com/ftp/",
            "auth": {"type": "api_key", "api_key": access_token, "name": "token"},
        },
        "resources": [
            {"name": "files", "endpoint": {"path": "ftp/download"}},
            {"name": "accounts", "endpoint": {"path": "Admin/API/v2/accounts"}}
        ],
    }
    yield from rest_api_resources(config)


def load_ftp_api_to_duckdb() -> None:
    pipeline = dlt.pipeline(
        pipeline_name="ftp_api_pipeline",
        destination="duckdb",
        dataset_name="ftp_api_data",
    )
    load_info = pipeline.run(ftp_api_source())
    print(load_info)


if __name__ == "__main__":
    load_ftp_api_to_duckdb()

Run it with python ftp_api_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 FTP 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):

Copy
import dlt

data = dlt.pipeline("ftp_api_pipeline").dataset()
df = data.files.df()
print(df.head())

SQL:

Copy
SELECT * FROM ftp_api_data.files LIMIT 10;

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

---

How do I deploy the FTP 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 FTP API 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 FTP 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.

---

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