Dynamics 365 Commerce Python API Docs | dltHub

Build a Dynamics 365 Commerce-to-database pipeline in Python using dlt with AI harness support for Claude Code, Cursor, and Codex.

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Dynamics 365 Commerce provides a set of RESTful APIs, known as the Commerce Scale Unit (CSU) or Retail Server APIs, that support omnichannel retail operations including headless commerce, point-of-sale integration, and e-commerce consumer scenarios. The REST API base URL is https://RetailserverURL/Commerce and requests require an OAuth 2.0 access token acquired from Microsoft Entra ID (Azure AD) or Microsoft Entra B2C for e-commerce scenarios..

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 Dynamics 365 Commerce data in under 10 minutes.


What data can I load from Dynamics 365 Commerce?

Here are some of the endpoints you can load from Dynamics 365 Commerce:

ResourceEndpointMethodData selectorDescription
business_partnersBusinessPartnersGETLists all business partner entities.
cartsCartsGETLists all cart entities.
catalogsCatalogsGETLists all catalog entities.
commerce_listsCommerceListsGETLists all commerce-list entities.
customersCustomersGETCustomers entity endpoint; exact list response selector was not documented in the retrieved sources.
categoriesCategoriesGETCategory-list API; the official example says it returns a list of categories, but does not document a JSON property selector.
order_history[customer order-history API; exact REST path not exposed in retrieved source]GETOrder-history operation is demonstrated through the Retail Server proxy; exact REST path and response selector require checking the environment's $metadata.

How do I authenticate with the Dynamics 365 Commerce API?

Authentication uses Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure AD) to acquire an access token via client credentials or user-based flows. The token is passed in the Authorization header, typically with a Bearer prefix for standard OAuth flows or a specific 'B2CToken' prefix for certain e-commerce scenarios.

1. Get your credentials

  1. Register two applications in the Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure Active Directory) tenant: one representing the Retail Server and one for your client application. 2. For the client application, navigate to 'Certificates & secrets' and create a new 'Client secret'. Copy the secret 'Value' immediately, as it will be masked. 3. Collect the 'Application (client) ID' for your client app, the 'Directory (tenant) ID', and the 'Application ID URI' (also known as the Resource ID) from the Retail Server app registration. 4. Use these credentials (tenant ID, client ID, client secret, and resource URL) to request an OAuth 2.0 access token via a POST request to the Microsoft identity platform token endpoint, using the 'client_credentials' grant type.

2. Add them to .dlt/secrets.toml

[sources.dynamics_365_commerce_source] tenant_id = "your_tenant_id_here" client_id = "your_client_id_here" client_secret = "your_client_secret_here" resource = "api://your_application_id_uri_here" retail_server_url = "https://your-retail-server-url/Commerce" operating_unit_number = "your_oun_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 Dynamics 365 Commerce 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 dynamics_365_commerce_pipeline.py

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

Pipeline dynamics_365_commerce_pipeline load step completed in 0.26 seconds 1 load package(s) were loaded to destination duckdb and into dataset dynamics_365_commerce_data The duckdb destination used duckdb:/dynamics_365_commerce.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 OAuth2 Token (for authentication) and Retail Server OData (for business data operations) from the Dynamics 365 Commerce 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 dynamics_365_commerce_source(client_credentials=dlt.secrets.value): config: RESTAPIConfig = { "client": { "base_url": "https://RetailserverURL/Commerce", "auth": {"type": "bearer", "token": client_credentials}, }, "resources": [ {"name": "catalogs", "endpoint": {"path": "Catalogs"}}, {"name": "commerce_lists", "endpoint": {"path": "CommerceLists"}} ], } yield from rest_api_resources(config) def get_data() -> None: pipeline = dlt.pipeline( pipeline_name="dynamics_365_commerce_pipeline", destination="duckdb", dataset_name="dynamics_365_commerce_data", ) load_info = pipeline.run(dynamics_365_commerce_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("dynamics_365_commerce_pipeline").dataset() sessions_df = data.catalogs.df() print(sessions_df.head())

SQL (DuckDB example):

SELECT * FROM dynamics_365_commerce_data.catalogs LIMIT 10;

In a marimo or Jupyter notebook:

import dlt data = dlt.pipeline("dynamics_365_commerce_pipeline").dataset() data.catalogs.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 Dynamics 365 Commerce 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 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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