Campaign Monitor Python API Docs | dltHub

Build a Campaign Monitor-to-database pipeline in Python using dlt with AI Workbench support for Claude Code, Cursor, and Codex.

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Campaign Monitor REST API is a platform that allows interaction with Campaign Monitor services for email marketing and campaign management. The REST API base URL is https://api.createsend.com/api/v3.3 and All requests require HTTP Basic authentication using an API key as the username (with a blank password) or OAuth2 bearer tokens..

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 Campaign Monitor data in under 10 minutes.


What data can I load from Campaign Monitor?

Here are some of the endpoints you can load from Campaign Monitor:

ResourceEndpointMethodData selectorDescription
clients/clients.jsonGETGet all clients
client_lists/clients/{clientid}/lists.jsonGETGet subscriber lists for a client
list_active_subscribers/lists/{listid}/active.jsonGETGet active subscribers for a list
list_segments/lists/{listid}/segments.jsonGETGet segments for a list
campaigns/campaigns.json?clientID={id}GETGet campaigns by client ID
campaign_summary/campaigns/{campaignid}/summary.jsonGETGet summary of a campaign
campaign_recipients/campaigns/{campaignid}/recipients.jsonGETRecipientsGet recipients of a campaign
subscriber/subscribers/{listid}.jsonGETGet a single subscriber object
subscriber_active/subscribers/{listid}/active.jsonGETGet active subscribers for a list
template/templates/{templateid}.jsonGETGet a template object

How do I authenticate with the Campaign Monitor API?

Authentication can be done via HTTP Basic using an API key as the username and a blank password, or by using OAuth2 bearer tokens.

1. Get your credentials

To obtain API credentials, navigate to Account Settings and then to API Keys within the Campaign Monitor dashboard.

2. Add them to .dlt/secrets.toml

[sources.campaign_monitor_source] api_key = "your_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 Campaign Monitor 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 campaign_monitor_pipeline.py

If everything is configured correctly, you'll see output like this:

Pipeline campaign_monitor_pipeline load step completed in 0.26 seconds 1 load package(s) were loaded to destination duckdb and into dataset campaign_monitor_data The duckdb destination used duckdb:/campaign_monitor.duckdb location to store data Load package 1749667187.541553 is LOADED and contains no failed jobs

Inspect your pipeline and data:

dlt pipeline campaign_monitor_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 clients and campaigns from the Campaign Monitor 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 campaign_monitor_source(api_key=dlt.secrets.value): config: RESTAPIConfig = { "client": { "base_url": "https://api.createsend.com/api/v3.3", "auth": { "type": "http_basic", "api_key": api_key, }, }, "resources": [ {"name": "clients", "endpoint": {"path": "clients.json"}}, {"name": "campaigns", "endpoint": {"path": "campaigns.json?clientID={id}"}} ], } yield from rest_api_resources(config) def get_data() -> None: pipeline = dlt.pipeline( pipeline_name="campaign_monitor_pipeline", destination="duckdb", dataset_name="campaign_monitor_data", ) load_info = pipeline.run(campaign_monitor_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("campaign_monitor_pipeline").dataset() sessions_df = data.clients.df() print(sessions_df.head())

SQL (DuckDB example):

SELECT * FROM campaign_monitor_data.clients LIMIT 10;

In a marimo or Jupyter notebook:

import dlt data = dlt.pipeline("campaign_monitor_pipeline").dataset() data.clients.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 Campaign Monitor data to?

dlt supports loading into any of these destinations — only the destination parameter changes:

DestinationExample 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.


Troubleshooting

Authentication Errors

If authentication fails, the API returns a 401 Unauthorized response. Specific error codes and messages include:

  • {"Code":100,"Message":"Invalid API Key"}: Occurs when an invalid API key is used.
  • {"Code":120,"Message":"Invalid OAuth Token"}: Indicates an issue with the OAuth token.
  • {"Code":121,"Message":"Expired"}: The OAuth token has expired.
  • {"Code":122,"Message":"Revoked"}: The OAuth token has been revoked.

Rate Limiting

Transactional endpoints are subject to API rate limiting. When the rate limit is exceeded, the API returns a 429 Too Many Requests response with the message {"Code":429,"Message":"Rate limit exceeded"}. Response headers such as X-RateLimit-Limit, X-RateLimit-Remaining, and X-RateLimit-Reset provide details on the current rate limit status.

Ensure that the API key is valid to avoid 401 Unauthorized errors. Also, verify endpoint paths and parameters to avoid 404 Not Found errors.


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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