Brandwatch Python API Docs | dltHub
Build a Brandwatch-to-database pipeline in Python using dlt with AI harness support for Claude Code, Cursor, and Codex.
Last updated:
Brandwatch is a social intelligence and consumer research platform providing APIs for accessing consumer insights, social data, and analytical reports. The REST API base URL is https://api.brandwatch.com and all requests require a Bearer token in the Authorization header.
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 add "dlt[hub]" and start loading Brandwatch data in under 10 minutes.
What data can I load from Brandwatch?
Here are some of the endpoints you can load from Brandwatch:
| Resource | Endpoint | Method | Data selector | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| projects | /projects | GET | results | List all projects. |
| queries | /projects/{projectId}/queries | GET | results | List all queries for a project. |
| query_groups | /projects/{projectId}/querygroups | GET | results | List all query groups for a project. |
| mentions | /projects/{projectId}/data/mentions | GET | Retrieve mentions. | |
| mentions_count | /projects/{projectId}/data/mentions/count | GET | Count mentions. |
How do I authenticate with the Brandwatch API?
The API uses OAuth 2.0 with a password grant type; a POST request to /oauth/token returns an access_token, which must be passed in the Authorization header as 'Bearer [ACCESS TOKEN]'.
1. Get your credentials
Brandwatch uses OAuth 2.0 authentication via a password grant flow. To obtain your credentials: 1) Ensure you have an active Consumer Research account with 'Regular' or 'Admin' user permissions. 2) Identify your username (email address) and password. 3) Use these to request an access token by sending a POST request to https://api.brandwatch.com/oauth/token with grant_type=api-password, client_id=brandwatch-api-client, username=[your_email], and password=[your_password]. The returned access_token is then used as a Bearer token in the Authorization header of subsequent API requests.
2. Add them to .dlt/secrets.toml
[sources.brandwatch_source] brandwatch_username = "your_email@example.com" brandwatch_password = "your_password"
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 init uv add "dlt[hub]"
1. Install the dlt AI harness:
uv run dlthub 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:
uv run dlthub ai toolkit install rest-api-pipeline
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 Brandwatch 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:
uv run python brandwatch_pipeline.py
If everything is configured correctly, you'll see output like this:
Pipeline brandwatch_pipeline load step completed in 0.26 seconds 1 load package(s) were loaded to destination duckdb and into dataset brandwatch_data The duckdb destination used duckdb:/brandwatch.duckdb location to store data Load package 1749667187.541553 is LOADED and contains no failed jobs
Inspect your pipeline and data:
uv run dlthub 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 /projects/summary and /oauth/token from the Brandwatch 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 brandwatch_source(access_token=dlt.secrets.value): config: RESTAPIConfig = { "client": { "base_url": "https://api.brandwatch.com", "auth": {"type": "bearer", "token": access_token}, }, "resources": [ {"name": "mentions", "endpoint": {"path": "projects/{projectId}/data/mentions", "data_selector": "results"}}, {"name": "queries", "endpoint": {"path": "projects/{projectId}/queries", "data_selector": "results"}} ], } yield from rest_api_resources(config) def get_data() -> None: pipeline = dlt.pipeline( pipeline_name="brandwatch_pipeline", destination="duckdb", dataset_name="brandwatch_data", ) load_info = pipeline.run(brandwatch_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("brandwatch_pipeline").dataset() sessions_df = data.mentions.df() print(sessions_df.head())
SQL (DuckDB example):
SELECT * FROM brandwatch_data.mentions LIMIT 10;
In a marimo or Jupyter notebook:
import dlt data = dlt.pipeline("brandwatch_pipeline").dataset() data.mentions.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 Brandwatch 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 harness:
data-exploration— Build custom notebooks, charts, and dashboards for deeper analysis with marimo notebooks.dlthub-platform— Deploy, schedule, and monitor your pipeline in production.
uv run dlthub ai toolkit install data-exploration uv run dlthub ai toolkit install dlthub-platform
Was this page helpful?
Community Hub
Need more dlt context for Brandwatch?
Request dlt skills, commands, AGENT.md files, and AI-native context.