Bittensor Python API Docs | dltHub
Build a Bittensor-to-database pipeline in Python using dlt with AI Workbench support for Claude Code, Cursor, and Codex.
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Bittensor's REST API allows access to its data using an API key; validators provide network access, while developers use the API for queries; the API is part of the Taostats platform. The REST API base URL is https://management-api.taostats.io/api/v1 and all requests require a Taostats API key (project API key).
dlt is an open-source Python library that handles authentication, pagination, and schema evolution automatically. dlthub provides AI context files that enable code assistants to generate production-ready pipelines. Install with uv pip install "dlt[workspace]" and start loading Bittensor data in under 10 minutes.
What data can I load from Bittensor?
Here are some of the endpoints you can load from Bittensor:
| Resource | Endpoint | Method | Data selector | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| api_status | management-api.taostats.io/api/v1/key/validate | GET | Validate project API key / check API usage/status | |
| api_usage | /api/v1/usage | GET | usage | Get API usage for project |
| tao_price | /api/v1/tao/price | GET | data | Get current TAO price |
| tao_price_history | /api/v1/tao/price/history | GET | data | Get TAO price history |
| accounts | /api/v1/accounts/{account} | GET | account | Get account details |
| blocks | /api/v1/blocks | GET | blocks | Get blocks list |
| transfers | /api/v1/transfers | GET | transfers | Get transfers list |
| validators | /api/v1/validators | GET | validators | Get validators list |
| metagraph | /api/v1/metagraph | GET | metagraph | Get current metagraph |
| miner_weights | /api/v1/miners/weights | GET | weights | Get miner weights (latest) |
How do I authenticate with the Bittensor API?
Taostats authenticates requests with an API key issued via the Taostats dashboard; the key is sent in the request headers as required by the API.
1. Get your credentials
- Open https://dash.taostats.io and log in.
- Create an Organization with a name and description.
- Inside the organization, create a Project.
- In the Project’s API Keys section, click “Create API key”.
- Copy the generated key and store it securely.
2. Add them to .dlt/secrets.toml
[sources.bittensor_source] api_key = "your_taostats_api_key_here"
dlt reads this automatically at runtime — never hardcode tokens in your pipeline script. For production environments, see setting up credentials with dlt for environment variable and vault-based options.
How do I set up and run the pipeline?
Set up a virtual environment and install dlt:
uv venv && source .venv/bin/activate uv pip install "dlt[workspace]"
1. Install the dlt AI Workbench:
dlt ai init --agent <your-agent> # <agent>: claude | cursor | codex
This installs project rules, a secrets management skill, appropriate ignore files, and configures the dlt MCP server for your agent. Learn more →
2. Install the rest-api-pipeline toolkit:
dlt ai toolkit rest-api-pipeline install
This loads the skills and context about dlt the agent uses to build the pipeline iteratively, efficiently, and safely. The agent uses MCP tools to inspect credentials — it never needs to read your secrets.toml directly. Learn more →
3. Start LLM-assisted coding:
Use /find-source to load data from the Bittensor API into DuckDB.
The rest-api-pipeline toolkit takes over from here — it reads relevant API documentation, presents you with options for which endpoints to load, and follows a structured workflow to scaffold, debug, and validate the pipeline step by step.
4. Run the pipeline:
python bittensor_pipeline.py
If everything is configured correctly, you'll see output like this:
Pipeline bittensor_pipeline load step completed in 0.26 seconds 1 load package(s) were loaded to destination duckdb and into dataset bittensor_data The duckdb destination used duckdb:/bittensor.duckdb location to store data Load package 1749667187.541553 is LOADED and contains no failed jobs
Inspect your pipeline and data:
dlt pipeline bittensor_pipeline show
This opens the Pipeline Dashboard where you can verify pipeline state, load metrics, schema (tables, columns, types), and query the loaded data directly.
Python pipeline example
This example loads api_status and blocks from the Bittensor API into DuckDB. It mirrors the endpoint and data selector configuration from the table above:
import dlt from dlt.sources.rest_api import RESTAPIConfig, rest_api_resources @dlt.source def bittensor_source(api_key=dlt.secrets.value): config: RESTAPIConfig = { "client": { "base_url": "https://management-api.taostats.io/api/v1", "auth": { "type": "api_key", "api_key": api_key, }, }, "resources": [ {"name": "api_status", "endpoint": {"path": "management-api.taostats.io/api/v1/key/validate"}}, {"name": "blocks", "endpoint": {"path": "api/v1/blocks", "data_selector": "blocks"}} ], } yield from rest_api_resources(config) def get_data() -> None: pipeline = dlt.pipeline( pipeline_name="bittensor_pipeline", destination="duckdb", dataset_name="bittensor_data", ) load_info = pipeline.run(bittensor_source()) print(load_info)
To add more endpoints, append entries from the resource table to the "resources" list using the same name, path, and data_selector pattern.
How do I query the loaded data?
Once the pipeline runs, dlt creates one table per resource. You can query with Python or SQL.
Python (pandas DataFrame):
import dlt data = dlt.pipeline("bittensor_pipeline").dataset() sessions_df = data.api_status.df() print(sessions_df.head())
SQL (DuckDB example):
SELECT * FROM bittensor_data.api_status LIMIT 10;
In a marimo or Jupyter notebook:
import dlt data = dlt.pipeline("bittensor_pipeline").dataset() data.api_status.df().head()
See how to explore your data in marimo Notebooks and how to query your data in Python with dataset.
What destinations can I load Bittensor data to?
dlt supports loading into any of these destinations — only the destination parameter changes:
| Destination | Example value |
|---|---|
| DuckDB (local, default) | "duckdb" |
| PostgreSQL | "postgres" |
| BigQuery | "bigquery" |
| Snowflake | "snowflake" |
| Redshift | "redshift" |
| Databricks | "databricks" |
| Filesystem (S3, GCS, Azure) | "filesystem" |
Change the destination in dlt.pipeline(destination="snowflake") and add credentials in .dlt/secrets.toml. See the full destinations list.
Next steps
Continue your data engineering journey with the other toolkits of the dltHub AI Workbench:
data-exploration— Build custom notebooks, charts, and dashboards for deeper analysis with marimo notebooks.dlthub-runtime— Deploy, schedule, and monitor your pipeline in production.
dlt ai toolkit data-exploration install dlt ai toolkit dlthub-runtime install
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