Fed Treasury Python API Docs | dltHub

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

Last updated:

The U.S. Treasury Fiscal Data API provides open, public access to federal financial data including national debt, interest rates, and fiscal operations data. The REST API base URL is https://api.fiscaldata.treasury.gov/services/api/fiscal_service/ and no authentication required for public endpoints.

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 Fed Treasury data in under 10 minutes.


What data can I load from Fed Treasury?

Here are some of the endpoints you can load from Fed Treasury:

ResourceEndpointMethodData selectorDescription
debt_to_the_penny/v2/accounting/od/debt_to_the_pennyGETdataDaily debt to the penny data
daily_treasury_statement/v1/accounting/dts/dts_table_1GETdataDaily cash receipts and disbursements
savings_bond_redemption/v1/accounting/od/sb_redemption_tablesGETdataAccrual savings bonds redemption tables
treasury_securities_auctions/v2/accounting/od/auctions_queryGETdataAnnounced, auctioned, or bought back securities
federal_borrowings/v2/accounting/od/fbp_summaryGETdataFederal Borrowings Program summary data

How do I authenticate with the Fed Treasury API?

The Fiscal Data API is public and does not require authentication for requests, although an API key can optionally be included as a query parameter for higher rate limits.

1. Get your credentials

The U.S. Treasury's public Fiscal Data API is open and does not require a user account or API key for basic GET requests. You can access it directly via the base URL: https://api.fiscaldata.treasury.gov/services/api/fiscal_service/. If your application requires higher rate limits, you may optionally include an api_key as a query parameter, which can be requested by contacting the Fiscal Data team through their official website's Contact/FAQ page.

2. Add them to .dlt/secrets.toml

[sources.fed_treasury_source] # api_key = "optional_api_key_if_requested"

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 Fed Treasury 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 fed_treasury_pipeline.py

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

Pipeline fed_treasury_pipeline load step completed in 0.26 seconds 1 load package(s) were loaded to destination duckdb and into dataset fed_treasury_data The duckdb destination used duckdb:/fed_treasury.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 v1/accounting/od/rates_of_exchange and v2/accounting/od/debt_to_penny from the Fed Treasury 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 fed_treasury_source(api_key=dlt.secrets.value): config: RESTAPIConfig = { "client": { "base_url": "https://api.fiscaldata.treasury.gov/services/api/fiscal_service/", "auth": {"type": "api_key", "api_key": api_key}, }, "resources": [ {"name": "fiscal_data_api", "endpoint": {"path": "services/api/fiscal_service", "data_selector": "data"}}, {"name": "treasury_statements", "endpoint": {"path": "v1/accounting/dts/dts_table_1", "data_selector": "data"}} ], } yield from rest_api_resources(config) def get_data() -> None: pipeline = dlt.pipeline( pipeline_name="fed_treasury_pipeline", destination="duckdb", dataset_name="fed_treasury_data", ) load_info = pipeline.run(fed_treasury_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("fed_treasury_pipeline").dataset() sessions_df = data.daily_treasury_statement.df() print(sessions_df.head())

SQL (DuckDB example):

SELECT * FROM fed_treasury_data.daily_treasury_statement LIMIT 10;

In a marimo or Jupyter notebook:

import dlt data = dlt.pipeline("fed_treasury_pipeline").dataset() data.daily_treasury_statement.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 Fed Treasury 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

Was this page helpful?

Community Hub

Need more dlt context for Fed Treasury?

Request dlt skills, commands, AGENT.md files, and AI-native context.

Available Pipelines