F5 Distributed Cloud Python API Docs | dltHub
Build a F5 Distributed Cloud-to-database pipeline in Python using dlt with AI Workbench support for Claude Code, Cursor, and Codex.
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The F5 Distributed Cloud API documentation provides reference for managing infrastructure, security, and networking services. Key features include bot defense, load balancing, and tenant management. The latest update was in October 2023. The REST API base URL is https://<tenant>.console.ves.volterra.io and all requests require an API token sent in the Authorization header (APIToken).
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 F5 Distributed Cloud data in under 10 minutes.
What data can I load from F5 Distributed Cloud?
Here are some of the endpoints you can load from F5 Distributed Cloud:
| Resource | Endpoint | Method | Data selector | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| sites | /api/config/namespaces/{namespace}/sites | GET | List Site objects in a namespace | |
| namespaces | /api/web/namespaces | GET | List tenant namespaces (organization plan) | |
| users | /api/web/namespaces/{namespace}/users | GET | List users in a namespace | |
| fleets | /api/config/namespaces/{namespace}/fleets | GET | List fleet objects in a namespace | |
| network_interfaces | /api/config/namespaces/{namespace}/network_interfaces | GET | List network interface objects in a namespace | |
| kms_keys | /api/kms/namespaces/{namespace}/keys | GET | List KMS keys in a namespace | |
| sites_get | /api/config/namespaces/{namespace}/sites/{name} | GET | Get a single site object by name |
How do I authenticate with the F5 Distributed Cloud API?
The API supports API Token or p12 client‑certificate authentication. For token‑based requests include header: Authorization: APIToken . For certificate auth use a p12 client certificate when connecting over TLS.
1. Get your credentials
- Log in to the F5 Distributed Cloud Console for your tenant. 2) In the Console, go to Account / API Tokens (or Credentials) and create a new API Token. 3) Copy the token value and store it securely. Tokens inherit the RBAC of the creator. Alternatively, generate a p12 client certificate in the Console and download the p12 + password for certificate‑based authentication.
2. Add them to .dlt/secrets.toml
[sources.f5_distributed_cloud_source] api_token = "your_api_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.
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 F5 Distributed Cloud 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 f5_distributed_cloud_pipeline.py
If everything is configured correctly, you'll see output like this:
Pipeline f5_distributed_cloud_pipeline load step completed in 0.26 seconds 1 load package(s) were loaded to destination duckdb and into dataset f5_distributed_cloud_data The duckdb destination used duckdb:/f5_distributed_cloud.duckdb location to store data Load package 1749667187.541553 is LOADED and contains no failed jobs
Inspect your pipeline and data:
dlt pipeline f5_distributed_cloud_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 sites and namespaces from the F5 Distributed Cloud 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 f5_distributed_cloud_source(api_token=dlt.secrets.value): config: RESTAPIConfig = { "client": { "base_url": "https://<tenant>.console.ves.volterra.io", "auth": { "type": "api_key", "api_key": api_token, }, }, "resources": [ {"name": "sites", "endpoint": {"path": "api/config/namespaces/{namespace}/sites"}}, {"name": "namespaces", "endpoint": {"path": "api/web/namespaces"}} ], } yield from rest_api_resources(config) def get_data() -> None: pipeline = dlt.pipeline( pipeline_name="f5_distributed_cloud_pipeline", destination="duckdb", dataset_name="f5_distributed_cloud_data", ) load_info = pipeline.run(f5_distributed_cloud_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("f5_distributed_cloud_pipeline").dataset() sessions_df = data.sites.df() print(sessions_df.head())
SQL (DuckDB example):
SELECT * FROM f5_distributed_cloud_data.sites LIMIT 10;
In a marimo or Jupyter notebook:
import dlt data = dlt.pipeline("f5_distributed_cloud_pipeline").dataset() data.sites.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 F5 Distributed Cloud 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 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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