Follow up boss Python API Docs | dltHub

Build a Follow up boss-to-database pipeline in Python using dlt with AI Workbench support for Claude Code, Cursor, and Codex.

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Follow Up Boss is a CRM platform that provides a REST API for managing people, notes, users and related sales data. The REST API base URL is https://api.followupboss.com/v1 and All requests require an API key passed via HTTP Basic authentication or as a Bearer token..

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 Follow up boss data in under 10 minutes.


What data can I load from Follow up boss?

Here are some of the endpoints you can load from Follow up boss:

ResourceEndpointMethodData selectorDescription
people/peopleGET(top‑level array)Retrieves a list of people (contacts) in the CRM.
notes/notesGETnotesReturns notes with optional reactions.
users/usersGET(top‑level array)Retrieves user accounts; can include calling info via fields param.
reactions/reactionsGET(top‑level array)Lists reactions attached to notes or threaded replies.
deals/dealsGET(top‑level array)Retrieves deal records (if available in docs).

How do I authenticate with the Follow up boss API?

The API uses HTTP Basic authentication where the API key is supplied as the username (password left blank), or a Bearer token can be sent in the Authorization: Bearer <token> header.

1. Get your credentials

  1. Log in to your Follow Up Boss account.
  2. Click on your profile picture → Settings.
  3. Choose API from the sidebar menu.
  4. Click Create New API Key (or similar button).
  5. Give the key a name, set desired permissions, and save.
  6. Copy the generated API key; this will be used as the credential in dlt.

2. Add them to .dlt/secrets.toml

[sources.follow_up_boss_source] api_key = "your_api_key_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 Follow up boss 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 follow_up_boss_pipeline.py

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

Pipeline follow_up_boss_pipeline load step completed in 0.26 seconds 1 load package(s) were loaded to destination duckdb and into dataset follow_up_boss_data The duckdb destination used duckdb:/follow_up_boss.duckdb location to store data Load package 1749667187.541553 is LOADED and contains no failed jobs

Inspect your pipeline and data:

dlt pipeline follow_up_boss_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 people and notes from the Follow up boss 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 follow_up_boss_source(api_key=dlt.secrets.value): config: RESTAPIConfig = { "client": { "base_url": "https://api.followupboss.com/v1", "auth": { "type": "http_basic", "api_key": api_key, }, }, "resources": [ {"name": "people", "endpoint": {"path": "people"}}, {"name": "notes", "endpoint": {"path": "notes", "data_selector": "notes"}} ], } yield from rest_api_resources(config) def get_data() -> None: pipeline = dlt.pipeline( pipeline_name="follow_up_boss_pipeline", destination="duckdb", dataset_name="follow_up_boss_data", ) load_info = pipeline.run(follow_up_boss_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("follow_up_boss_pipeline").dataset() sessions_df = data.people.df() print(sessions_df.head())

SQL (DuckDB example):

SELECT * FROM follow_up_boss_data.people LIMIT 10;

In a marimo or Jupyter notebook:

import dlt data = dlt.pipeline("follow_up_boss_pipeline").dataset() data.people.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 Follow up boss 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.


Troubleshooting

Authentication Errors

  • 401 Unauthorized – Occurs when the API key is missing, malformed, or does not have the required permissions. Verify that the API key is correctly set in the Authorization header (Basic) or as a Bearer token.

Rate Limiting

  • 429 Too Many Requests – The API enforces a request quota per minute. If you receive this response, back‑off for a few seconds and retry. Check response headers for Retry-After if provided.

Pagination

  • The API uses page and per_page query parameters to paginate list endpoints (e.g., /people). The response includes a total count and page metadata. Continue requesting subsequent pages until the returned array is empty or the page exceeds total_pages.

Ensure that the API key is valid to avoid 401 Unauthorized errors. Also, verify endpoint paths and parameters to avoid 404 Not Found errors.


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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