CoinAPI Python API Docs | dltHub

CoinAPI is a provider of unified cryptocurrency market data and trading/EMS APIs aggregating exchange data and execution services. The REST API base URL is https://rest.coinapi.io and all requests require an API key via the X-CoinAPI-Key header (or apikey query param)..

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 CoinAPI data in under 10 minutes.

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What data can I load from CoinAPI?

Here are some of the endpoints you can load from CoinAPI:

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How do I authenticate with the CoinAPI API?

CoinAPI uses an API key. Provide the key in the X-CoinAPI-Key HTTP header (recommended) or as the apikey query parameter.

1. Get your credentials

1. Sign up or log in at https://www.coinapi.io and go to your Dashboard.
2. Navigate to API Keys (or Managed Cloud → API Keys for EMS).
3. Create a new API key and copy it.
4. Use the key in the X-CoinAPI-Key header for requests (or as ?apikey=YOUR_KEY for testing).

2. Add them to .dlt/secrets.toml

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[sources.coin_api_source]
api_key = "your_coinapi_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.

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How do I set up and run the pipeline?

Set up a virtual environment and install dlt:

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uv venv && source .venv/bin/activate
uv pip install "dlt[workspace]"

1. Install the dlt AI Workbench:

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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:

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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 CoinAPI 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:

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python coin_api_pipeline.py

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

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

Inspect your pipeline and data:

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dlt pipeline coin_api_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.

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Python pipeline example

This example loads exchange_rates and quotes_current from the CoinAPI API into DuckDB. It mirrors the endpoint and data selector configuration from the table above:

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

@dlt.source
def coin_api_source(api_key=dlt.secrets.value):
    config: RESTAPIConfig = {
        "client": {
            "base_url": "https://rest.coinapi.io",
            "auth": {
                "type": "api_key",
                "api_key": api_key,
            },
        },
        "resources": [
            {"name": "exchange_rates", "endpoint": {"path": "v1/exchangerate/{asset_id_base}/{asset_id_quote}"}},
            {"name": "quotes_current", "endpoint": {"path": "v1/quotes/current"}}
        ],
    }
    yield from rest_api_resources(config)


def get_data() -> None:
    pipeline = dlt.pipeline(
        pipeline_name="coin_api_pipeline",
        destination="duckdb",
        dataset_name="coin_api_data",
    )
    load_info = pipeline.run(coin_api_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.

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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):

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import dlt

data = dlt.pipeline("coin_api_pipeline").dataset()
sessions_df = data.exchange_rates.df()
print(sessions_df.head())

SQL (DuckDB example):

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SELECT * FROM coin_api_data.exchange_rates LIMIT 10;

In a marimo or Jupyter notebook:

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import dlt

data = dlt.pipeline("coin_api_pipeline").dataset()
data.exchange_rates.df().head()

See how to explore your data in marimo Notebooks and how to query your data in Python with dataset.

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What destinations can I load CoinAPI data to?

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

Change the destination in dlt.pipeline(destination="snowflake") and add credentials in .dlt/secrets.toml. See the full destinations list.

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Troubleshooting

Authentication failures

If you get 401 or 403 responses, verify X-CoinAPI-Key header contains a valid API key. For Managed Cloud EMS, ensure the key is assigned to the correct deployment and consider using apikey query param for debugging.

Rate limits and request limits

CoinAPI enforces request limits per plan. Exceeding limits returns 429 Too Many Requests. Implement retries with exponential backoff and respect headers or dashboard limits.

Pagination & large responses

Many list endpoints return top-level JSON arrays (no wrapper). Use query parameters where available (e.g., time ranges or pagination params if documented) and fetch in chunks to avoid large payloads.

Common API errors (summary):

• 400 Bad Request: malformed parameters
• 401 Unauthorized / 403 Forbidden: invalid or missing API key or insufficient permissions
• 404 Not Found: invalid resource id
• 429 Too Many Requests: rate limit exceeded
• 500/502/503: server errors; retry with backoff

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

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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.

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dlt ai toolkit data-exploration install
dlt ai toolkit dlthub-runtime install

• How to deploy a pipeline
• How to explore your data in marimo Notebooks
• How to query your data in Python with dataset
• Join the dlt community on Slack