DIY Solar Forum Python API Docs | dltHub

EG4 (DIY Solar Forum references) is a REST/Web API that allows for the extraction of integration details. The REST API base URL is https://monitor.eg4electronics.com and Authentication requires a username/password login, which issues a session cookie (JSESSIONID) for subsequent requests..

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 DIY Solar Forum data in under 10 minutes.

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What data can I load from DIY Solar Forum?

Here are some of the endpoints you can load from DIY Solar Forum:

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How do I authenticate with the DIY Solar Forum API?

Login is performed via a username/password POST request. The library handles storing the JSESSIONID cookie, which must be included in subsequent requests. Some community code also sends an access_token header, but the primary method is the session cookie from login.

1. Get your credentials

1. Create an EG4 account via the EG4 app/portal. 2. Obtain the username and password used for login. Note that EG4 currently limits API access to B2B, but the monitor.eg4 web portal is accessible with account credentials.

2. Add them to .dlt/secrets.toml

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[sources.diy_solar_forum_source]
username = "your_username"
password = "your_password"

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 DIY Solar Forum 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 diy_solar_forum_pipeline.py

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

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Pipeline diy_solar_forum_pipeline load step completed in 0.26 seconds
1 load package(s) were loaded to destination duckdb and into dataset diy_solar_forum_data
The duckdb destination used duckdb:/diy_solar_forum.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 diy_solar_forum_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 inverters and inverter_runtime from the DIY Solar Forum 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 diy_solar_forum_source(username,password=dlt.secrets.value):
    config: RESTAPIConfig = {
        "client": {
            "base_url": "https://monitor.eg4electronics.com",
            "auth": {
                "type": "cookie",
                "JSESSIONID": username,password,
            },
        },
        "resources": [
            {"name": "inverters", "endpoint": {"path": "inverters"}},
            {"name": "inverter_runtime", "endpoint": {"path": "inverter/runtime"}}
        ],
    }
    yield from rest_api_resources(config)


def get_data() -> None:
    pipeline = dlt.pipeline(
        pipeline_name="diy_solar_forum_pipeline",
        destination="duckdb",
        dataset_name="diy_solar_forum_data",
    )
    load_info = pipeline.run(diy_solar_forum_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("diy_solar_forum_pipeline").dataset()
sessions_df = data.inverters.df()
print(sessions_df.head())

SQL (DuckDB example):

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SELECT * FROM diy_solar_forum_data.inverters LIMIT 10;

In a marimo or Jupyter notebook:

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import dlt

data = dlt.pipeline("diy_solar_forum_pipeline").dataset()
data.inverters.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 DIY Solar Forum 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

Authentication failures (HTTP 401 errors) typically indicate an expired session. Re-running the login process will refresh the JSESSIONID cookie and re-authenticate the session. Community wrappers often handle this re-authentication automatically.

Rate Limits

The API's rate limits are currently unspecified. Users should implement appropriate back-off and retry mechanisms to handle potential rate limiting.

SSL Issues

Some client wrappers provide an ignore_ssl option to bypass SSL certificate validation issues, which can be useful in certain environments.

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