Drift Python API Docs | dltHub

Drift API is a platform that provides conversational sales and marketing tools, enabling businesses to automate interactions with customers and manage data related to contacts and conversations. The REST API base URL is https://driftapi.com and all requests require a Bearer token for 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 Drift data in under 10 minutes.

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What data can I load from Drift?

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

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How do I authenticate with the Drift API?

Include header Authorization: Bearer . For private integrations a non-expiring access token is provided upon app installation; for public apps implement OAuth if needed.

1. Get your credentials

1. Create an App in the Drift Developer portal (see Quick Start / Build an App). 2. Under Activate Your App, click "Install App to Drift" to install to your account. 3. Installing reveals a non-expiring access token. Copy and securely store it. 4. Use that token in API requests via the Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN header.

2. Add them to .dlt/secrets.toml

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[sources.drift_source]
auth_token = "your_token_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 Drift 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 drift_pipeline.py

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

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Pipeline drift_pipeline load step completed in 0.26 seconds
1 load package(s) were loaded to destination duckdb and into dataset drift_data
The duckdb destination used duckdb:/drift.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 drift_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 contacts and conversations from the Drift 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 drift_source(auth_token=dlt.secrets.value):
    config: RESTAPIConfig = {
        "client": {
            "base_url": "https://driftapi.com",
            "auth": {
                "type": "bearer",
                "token": auth_token,
            },
        },
        "resources": [
            {"name": "contacts", "endpoint": {"path": "contacts", "data_selector": "contacts"}},
            {"name": "conversations", "endpoint": {"path": "conversations/list", "data_selector": "conversations"}}
        ],
    }
    yield from rest_api_resources(config)


def get_data() -> None:
    pipeline = dlt.pipeline(
        pipeline_name="drift_pipeline",
        destination="duckdb",
        dataset_name="drift_data",
    )
    load_info = pipeline.run(drift_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("drift_pipeline").dataset()
sessions_df = data.contacts.df()
print(sessions_df.head())

SQL (DuckDB example):

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SELECT * FROM drift_data.contacts LIMIT 10;

In a marimo or Jupyter notebook:

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import dlt

data = dlt.pipeline("drift_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.

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What destinations can I load Drift 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 401/403, verify Authorization: Bearer , ensure token was copied from App Install and has required scopes.

Rate limits and pagination

Listing endpoints use pagination; if responses are truncated, use the endpoint's paging parameters or follow a next cursor if provided. Exceeding rate limits returns HTTP error responses indicating to back off.

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