Formspree Python API Docs | dltHub

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

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Formspree is a service that collects form submissions and provides a REST API to retrieve them and manage forms. The REST API base URL is https://formspree.io/api/0 and all requests require an API key supplied via Basic or Bearer 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 add "dlt[hub]" and start loading Formspree data in under 10 minutes.


What data can I load from Formspree?

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

ResourceEndpointMethodData selectorDescription
submissionsforms/{hashid}/submissionsGETsubmissionsFetch submissions for a specific form.
formsformsGETformsList all forms owned by the account.
form_detailsforms/{hashid}GETGet details for a specific form.
form_activityforms/{hashid}/activityGETactivityGet activity logs for a form.
webhookswebhooksGETwebhooksList webhooks associated with the account.

How do I authenticate with the Formspree API?

Formspree supports both Basic authentication (using an empty username and the API key as the password) and Bearer token authentication (using the API key directly in the Authorization header). Required header is 'Authorization'.

1. Get your credentials

  1. Log in to your Formspree account at formspree.io.
  2. Navigate to the dashboard for the specific form you wish to access.
  3. Click on the Settings tab.
  4. Locate the HTTP API section and toggle the switch to enable it (if not already enabled).
  5. Copy your Master API key (for full access) or Read-only API key (for limited access). Note that API keys are only available on professional and business plans.

2. Add them to .dlt/secrets.toml

[sources.formspree_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 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 Formspree 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 formspree_pipeline.py

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

Pipeline formspree_pipeline load step completed in 0.26 seconds 1 load package(s) were loaded to destination duckdb and into dataset formspree_data The duckdb destination used duckdb:/formspree.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 /forms//submissions and /forms/ from the Formspree 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 formspree_source(api_key=dlt.secrets.value): config: RESTAPIConfig = { "client": { "base_url": "https://formspree.io/api/0", "auth": {"type": "bearer", "token": api_key}, }, "resources": [ {"name": "submissions", "endpoint": {"path": "forms/{hashid}/submissions"}}, {"name": "forms", "endpoint": {"path": "forms"}} ], } yield from rest_api_resources(config) def get_data() -> None: pipeline = dlt.pipeline( pipeline_name="formspree_pipeline", destination="duckdb", dataset_name="formspree_data", ) load_info = pipeline.run(formspree_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("formspree_pipeline").dataset() sessions_df = data.submissions.df() print(sessions_df.head())

SQL (DuckDB example):

SELECT * FROM formspree_data.submissions LIMIT 10;

In a marimo or Jupyter notebook:

import dlt data = dlt.pipeline("formspree_pipeline").dataset() data.submissions.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 Formspree 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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