Formstack Python API Docs | dltHub

Formstack is a platform for building online forms, managing form submissions, and generating documents via its Forms and Documents APIs. The REST API base URL is https://api.formstack.com/v2025.0 and Forms API: personal access token / bearer token; Documents API: HTTP Basic (API key:secret)..

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 Formstack data in under 10 minutes.

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What data can I load from Formstack?

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

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How do I authenticate with the Formstack API?

Forms API requests require an Authorization header with a Bearer token (Personal Access Token) obtained from Developer Central. Formstack Documents (WebMerge) uses HTTP Basic auth with API Key as the username and Secret as the password.

1. Get your credentials

1. Log in to your Formstack account. 2) Open Developer Central (https://developers.formstack.com) or navigate to Account Settings → API/Developer. 3) Create a Personal Access Token for Forms API or an API Key/Secret pair for Documents API. 4) Copy the token (for Bearer auth) and the key/secret (for Basic auth).

2. Add them to .dlt/secrets.toml

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[sources.formstack_source]
api_token = "your_formstack_personal_access_token"
documents_api_key = "your_webmerge_api_key"
documents_api_secret = "your_webmerge_api_secret"

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.

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How do I set up and run the pipeline?

Set up a virtual environment and install dlt:

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uv venv && source .venv/bin/activate
uv pip install "dlt[workspace]"

1. Install the dlt AI Workbench:

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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:

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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 Formstack 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:

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python formstack_pipeline.py

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

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

Inspect your pipeline and data:

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dlt pipeline formstack_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.

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Python pipeline example

This example loads forms and submissions from the Formstack API into DuckDB. It mirrors the endpoint and data selector configuration from the table above:

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import dlt
from dlt.sources.rest_api import RESTAPIConfig, rest_api_resources

@dlt.source
def formstack_source(api_token=dlt.secrets.value):
    config: RESTAPIConfig = {
        "client": {
            "base_url": "https://api.formstack.com/v2025.0",
            "auth": {
                "type": "bearer",
                "api_token": api_token,
            },
        },
        "resources": [
            {"name": "forms", "endpoint": {"path": "forms", "data_selector": "forms"}},
            {"name": "submissions", "endpoint": {"path": "forms/{formId}/submissions", "data_selector": "submissions"}}
        ],
    }
    yield from rest_api_resources(config)


def get_data() -> None:
    pipeline = dlt.pipeline(
        pipeline_name="formstack_pipeline",
        destination="duckdb",
        dataset_name="formstack_data",
    )
    load_info = pipeline.run(formstack_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.

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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):

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import dlt

data = dlt.pipeline("formstack_pipeline").dataset()
sessions_df = data.forms.df()
print(sessions_df.head())

SQL (DuckDB example):

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SELECT * FROM formstack_data.forms LIMIT 10;

In a marimo or Jupyter notebook:

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import dlt

data = dlt.pipeline("formstack_pipeline").dataset()
data.forms.df().head()

See how to explore your data in marimo Notebooks and how to query your data in Python with dataset.

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What destinations can I load Formstack data to?

dlt supports loading into any of these destinations — only the destination parameter changes:

Change the destination in dlt.pipeline(destination="snowflake") and add credentials in .dlt/secrets.toml. See the full destinations list.

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Troubleshooting

Authentication failures

Ensure the Authorization: Bearer <token> header is present for Forms API calls. A 401 response means the token is missing or invalid; a 403 indicates insufficient permissions or that the API is not enabled for the account.

Rate limits

The API returns 429 Too Many Requests when the request rate exceeds the allowed threshold. Implement exponential back‑off and retry after a pause.

Pagination

Use the page and per_page query parameters. Responses include total, page, and per_page metadata. Continue requesting subsequent pages until all records have been retrieved.

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

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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.

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dlt ai toolkit data-exploration install
dlt ai toolkit dlthub-runtime install

• How to deploy a pipeline
• How to explore your data in marimo Notebooks
• How to query your data in Python with dataset
• Join the dlt community on Slack