Coinbase Exchange Python API Docs | dltHub

Coinbase Exchange REST API provides access to public market data and private user account information for trading and managing cryptocurrency assets. The REST API base URL is https://api.exchange.coinbase.com and Private requests require API key, secret, and passphrase for HMAC-SHA256 signature-based authentication..

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 Coinbase Exchange data in under 10 minutes.

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What data can I load from Coinbase Exchange?

Here are some of the endpoints you can load from Coinbase Exchange:

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How do I authenticate with the Coinbase Exchange API?

Authentication for private endpoints requires an API key, secret, and passphrase. Requests must include the headers CB-ACCESS-KEY, CB-ACCESS-SIGN, CB-ACCESS-TIMESTAMP, and CB-ACCESS-PASSPHRASE, where CB-ACCESS-SIGN is a base64-encoded HMAC-SHA256 signature.

1. Get your credentials

Instructions for obtaining API credentials from the Coinbase Exchange dashboard are not provided in the available documentation. Users typically need to navigate to their account settings or developer section to generate API keys, secrets, and passphrases.

2. Add them to .dlt/secrets.toml

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[sources.coinbase_exchange_source]
api_key = "your_api_key_here"
secret = "your_secret_here"
passphrase = "your_passphrase_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 Coinbase Exchange 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 coinbase_exchange_pipeline.py

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

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Pipeline coinbase_exchange_pipeline load step completed in 0.26 seconds
1 load package(s) were loaded to destination duckdb and into dataset coinbase_exchange_data
The duckdb destination used duckdb:/coinbase_exchange.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 coinbase_exchange_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 products and accounts from the Coinbase Exchange 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 coinbase_exchange_source(api_key=dlt.secrets.value):
    config: RESTAPIConfig = {
        "client": {
            "base_url": "https://api.exchange.coinbase.com",
            "auth": {
                "type": "api_key",
                "api_key": api_key,
            },
        },
        "resources": [
            {"name": "products", "endpoint": {"path": "market/products"}},
            {"name": "accounts", "endpoint": {"path": "accounts"}}
        ],
    }
    yield from rest_api_resources(config)


def get_data() -> None:
    pipeline = dlt.pipeline(
        pipeline_name="coinbase_exchange_pipeline",
        destination="duckdb",
        dataset_name="coinbase_exchange_data",
    )
    load_info = pipeline.run(coinbase_exchange_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("coinbase_exchange_pipeline").dataset()
sessions_df = data.products.df()
print(sessions_df.head())

SQL (DuckDB example):

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SELECT * FROM coinbase_exchange_data.products LIMIT 10;

In a marimo or Jupyter notebook:

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import dlt

data = dlt.pipeline("coinbase_exchange_pipeline").dataset()
data.products.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 Coinbase Exchange 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 Errors

Authentication failures can occur if the CB-ACCESS-TIMESTAMP is not within 30 seconds of the API service time. It is recommended to use the /time endpoint to query for the API server time and ensure your local timestamp is synchronized.

Common HTTP Error Codes

The API uses standard HTTP response status codes for success and failure. Common error codes include:

• 400 Bad Request: Invalid request format.
• 401 Unauthorized: Invalid API Key.
• 403 Forbidden: You do not have access to the requested resource.
• 404 Not Found.
• 500 Internal Server Error: A problem with the server.

Error responses typically include a JSON object with a message field, e.g., {"message": "Invalid Price"}.

Rate Limits and Caching

Public endpoints have a 1-second cache enabled. To bypass the cache, you can use the cache-control:no-cache header in your requests.

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