Keila Python API Docs | dltHub

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

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Keila is a REST API for managing email newsletters, contacts, campaigns, senders and forms. The REST API base URL is https://app.keila.io and All requests require a Bearer token for 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 pip install "dlt[workspace]" and start loading Keila data in under 10 minutes.


What data can I load from Keila?

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

ResourceEndpointMethodData selectorDescription
campaigns/api/v1/campaignsGETdataRetrieve all campaigns for the project.
campaign/api/v1/campaigns/{id}GETdataRetrieve a single campaign by id.
senders/api/v1/sendersGETdataList configured sender identities.
contacts/api/v1/contactsGETdataList contacts for the project.
forms/api/v1/formsGETdataList forms configured on the project.
segments/api/v1/segmentsGETdataList segments.
campaigns_send/api/v1/campaigns/{id}/actions/sendPOSTdataQueue delivery of a campaign (non‑GET, included as relevant action).

How do I authenticate with the Keila API?

Keila uses Bearer authentication. Include the private API key in the Authorization header as: Authorization: Bearer YOUR_SECRET_TOKEN.

1. Get your credentials

  1. Log in to your Keila project at the Keila web app. 2) In the left menu open “API Keys”. 3) Click “Create new API key”, give it a name and Save. 4) Copy the displayed private API key (it is shown only once) and store it securely.

2. Add them to .dlt/secrets.toml

[sources.keila_source] token = "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 Keila 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 keila_pipeline.py

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

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

Inspect your pipeline and data:

dlt pipeline keila_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 campaigns and contacts from the Keila 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 keila_source(token=dlt.secrets.value): config: RESTAPIConfig = { "client": { "base_url": "https://app.keila.io", "auth": { "type": "bearer", "token": token, }, }, "resources": [ {"name": "campaigns", "endpoint": {"path": "api/v1/campaigns", "data_selector": "data"}}, {"name": "contacts", "endpoint": {"path": "api/v1/contacts", "data_selector": "data"}} ], } yield from rest_api_resources(config) def get_data() -> None: pipeline = dlt.pipeline( pipeline_name="keila_pipeline", destination="duckdb", dataset_name="keila_data", ) load_info = pipeline.run(keila_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("keila_pipeline").dataset() sessions_df = data.campaigns.df() print(sessions_df.head())

SQL (DuckDB example):

SELECT * FROM keila_data.campaigns LIMIT 10;

In a marimo or Jupyter notebook:

import dlt data = dlt.pipeline("keila_pipeline").dataset() data.campaigns.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 Keila 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 failures

If you receive HTTP 401/403 responses check that you supplied the project private API key as a Bearer token in the Authorization header (Authorization: Bearer YOUR_SECRET_TOKEN). API keys are created under “API Keys” in the Keila app and are shown only once when created.

Pagination and meta

Index responses include a top-level "meta" object with pagination info (page, page_count, page_size). The records are returned under the top-level "data" key. Use the meta values to page through results.

Rate limiting and errors

The API returns standard HTTP status codes for errors (4xx for client errors, 5xx for server errors). For 429 (rate limit) retry with backoff. Check response body for error details in the JSON error payload.

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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