Data Lineage API Python API Docs | dltHub

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

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The Data Lineage API tracks data movement across Google Cloud systems. It provides REST resources for managing lineage events and processes. It enables automated data lineage management. The REST API base URL is https://datalineage.googleapis.com and All requests require Google Cloud OAuth2 credentials (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 pip install "dlt[workspace]" and start loading Data Lineage API data in under 10 minutes.


What data can I load from Data Lineage API?

Here are some of the endpoints you can load from Data Lineage API:

ResourceEndpointMethodData selectorDescription
processes/v1/{parent}/processesGETprocessesList processes in a given project/location.
process/v1/{name}GETGet details of a single process.
runs/v1/{parent}/runsGETrunsList runs for a process (project/location).
run/v1/{name}GETGet details of a single run.
lineage_events/v1/{parent}/lineageEventsGETlineageEventsList lineage events for a run/process.
lineage_event/v1/{name}GETGet details of a single lineage event.
operations/v1/{name}/operationsGEToperationsList long‑running operations (filterable).
operation/v1/{name}GETGet latest state of a long‑running operation.
config/v1/{name}GETGet Data Lineage Config for a location/resource.
search_links/v1/{parent}:searchLinksPOSTlinksRPC to search links connected to an asset (response contains links array).

How do I authenticate with the Data Lineage API API?

Use Google Cloud IAM credentials (user or service account) to obtain an OAuth2 access token and include it in the Authorization header as: Authorization: Bearer <ACCESS_TOKEN>. Calls made from Google client libraries use Application Default Credentials.

1. Get your credentials

  1. Create or select a GCP project in Cloud Console. 2) Enable the Data Lineage API (datalineage.googleapis.com). 3) Create a service account under IAM & Admin and grant required roles (e.g., Data Lineage Viewer/Editor or custom). 4) Create and download a JSON key for the service account. 5) Use the key with Google client libraries or fetch an access token: gcloud auth activate-service-account --key-file=KEY.json && gcloud auth print-access-token. Use that token in the Authorization header.

2. Add them to .dlt/secrets.toml

[sources.data_lineage_api_source] credentials = "path/to/service_account_key.json"

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 Data Lineage API 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 data_lineage_api_pipeline.py

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

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

Inspect your pipeline and data:

dlt pipeline data_lineage_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.


Python pipeline example

This example loads processes and runs from the Data Lineage API 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 data_lineage_api_source(credentials=dlt.secrets.value): config: RESTAPIConfig = { "client": { "base_url": "https://datalineage.googleapis.com", "auth": { "type": "bearer", "token": credentials, }, }, "resources": [ {"name": "processes", "endpoint": {"path": "v1/{parent}/processes", "data_selector": "processes"}}, {"name": "runs", "endpoint": {"path": "v1/{parent}/runs", "data_selector": "runs"}} ], } yield from rest_api_resources(config) def get_data() -> None: pipeline = dlt.pipeline( pipeline_name="data_lineage_api_pipeline", destination="duckdb", dataset_name="data_lineage_api_data", ) load_info = pipeline.run(data_lineage_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.


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("data_lineage_api_pipeline").dataset() sessions_df = data.processes.df() print(sessions_df.head())

SQL (DuckDB example):

SELECT * FROM data_lineage_api_data.processes LIMIT 10;

In a marimo or Jupyter notebook:

import dlt data = dlt.pipeline("data_lineage_api_pipeline").dataset() data.processes.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 Data Lineage API 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.


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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