Constant contact Python API Docs | dltHub
Build a Constant contact-to-database pipeline in Python using dlt with AI harness support for Claude Code, Cursor, and Codex.
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Constant Contact is an email marketing platform providing RESTful APIs to manage contacts, lists, email campaigns, account settings, bulk activities, and webhooks. The REST API base URL is https://api.cc.email/v3 and all requests require a Bearer token.
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 Constant contact data in under 10 minutes.
What data can I load from Constant contact?
Here are some of the endpoints you can load from Constant contact:
| Resource | Endpoint | Method | Data selector | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| contacts | contacts | GET | contacts | Retrieve a collection of contacts. |
| contact_lists | contact_lists | GET | lists | Retrieve a collection of contact lists. |
| activities | activities | GET | Retrieve a collection of bulk activities. | |
| custom_fields | contact_custom_fields | GET | custom_fields | Retrieve a collection of custom fields. |
| tags | tags | GET | tags | Retrieve a collection of contact tags. |
How do I authenticate with the Constant contact API?
All API requests require an OAuth2 access token passed in the Authorization header using the Bearer token scheme.
1. Get your credentials
- Log in to your Constant Contact account. 2. Navigate to the Constant Contact Developer Portal (https://v3.developer.constantcontact.com). 3. Click on the 'My Applications' tab in the top navigation bar. 4. Click 'New Application' to register a new integration. 5. Enter a name for your application and save it. 6. Once created, click on your application's name to view the App Details page. 7. Copy the 'API Key' (which serves as the client_id). 8. Click 'Generate Client Secret' to create and copy your client_secret. Note: You must save these values securely, as the secret is only displayed once.
2. Add them to .dlt/secrets.toml
[sources.constant_contact_source] client_id = "your_api_key_here" client_secret = "your_client_secret_here" redirect_uri = "your_redirect_uri_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 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 Constant contact 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 constant_contact_pipeline.py
If everything is configured correctly, you'll see output like this:
Pipeline constant_contact_pipeline load step completed in 0.26 seconds 1 load package(s) were loaded to destination duckdb and into dataset constant_contact_data The duckdb destination used duckdb:/constant_contact.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 /contacts and /contacts/{contact_id} from the Constant contact 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 constant_contact_source(access_token=dlt.secrets.value): config: RESTAPIConfig = { "client": { "base_url": "https://api.cc.email/v3", "auth": {"type": "bearer", "token": access_token}, }, "resources": [ {"name": "contacts", "endpoint": {"path": "contacts", "data_selector": "contacts"}}, {"name": "contact_lists", "endpoint": {"path": "contact_lists", "data_selector": "lists"}} ], } yield from rest_api_resources(config) def get_data() -> None: pipeline = dlt.pipeline( pipeline_name="constant_contact_pipeline", destination="duckdb", dataset_name="constant_contact_data", ) load_info = pipeline.run(constant_contact_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("constant_contact_pipeline").dataset() sessions_df = data.contacts.df() print(sessions_df.head())
SQL (DuckDB example):
SELECT * FROM constant_contact_data.contacts LIMIT 10;
In a marimo or Jupyter notebook:
import dlt data = dlt.pipeline("constant_contact_pipeline").dataset() data.contacts.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 Constant contact 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
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