LivingDocs Python API Docs | dltHub

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

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LivingDocs provides a Public API for interacting with project configurations, documents, publications, and site structures. The REST API base URL is https://server.livingdocs.io/ and all requests require a Bearer token in the Authorization header.

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 LivingDocs data in under 10 minutes.


What data can I load from LivingDocs?

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

ResourceEndpointMethodData selectorDescription
publications_search/api/2026-01/publications/searchGETresultsSearch published documents with cursor-based pagination
incoming_doc_references/api/2026-01/documents/
/incomingDocumentReferences
GETresultsList documents referencing a specific document
incoming_media_references/api/2026-01/documents/
/incomingMediaReferences
GETresultsList media files referencing a specific document
media_incoming_doc_refs/api/2026-01/mediaLibrary/
/incomingDocumentReferences
GETresultsList documents referencing a media file
media_incoming_media_refs/api/2026-01/mediaLibrary/
/incomingMediaReferences
GETresultsList media files referencing a media file
drafts_incoming_doc_refs/api/2026-01/drafts/
/incomingDocumentReferences
GETresultsList documents referencing a specific draft

How do I authenticate with the LivingDocs API?

All API requests require an Authorization header with the format 'Bearer <your_token>'. The token is created within the Project Settings page of the Livingdocs Editor.

1. Get your credentials

To obtain an API key for the Livingdocs REST API, log in to the Livingdocs Editor and navigate to the project settings. Go to Menu, select Preferences, and then Project Admin. In the sidebar, click on Api Clients, and then use the Add Api Client button to initiate the token creation flow. You can define the token name, expiration, and specific permissions before generating the AccessToken, which should be copied securely upon creation.

2. Add them to .dlt/secrets.toml

[sources.livingdocs_source] api_key = "your_access_token_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 LivingDocs 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 livingdocs_pipeline.py

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

Pipeline livingdocs_pipeline load step completed in 0.26 seconds 1 load package(s) were loaded to destination duckdb and into dataset livingdocs_data The duckdb destination used duckdb:/livingdocs.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 /projectConfig and /documents/latestPublications from the LivingDocs 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 livingdocs_source(api_key=dlt.secrets.value): config: RESTAPIConfig = { "client": { "base_url": "https://server.livingdocs.io/", "auth": {"type": "bearer", "token": api_key}, }, "resources": [ {"name": "publications_search", "endpoint": {"path": "api/2026-01/publications/search", "data_selector": "results"}}, {"name": "incoming_references", "endpoint": {"path": "api/2026-01/documents/:documentId/incomingDocumentReferences", "data_selector": "results"}} ], } yield from rest_api_resources(config) def get_data() -> None: pipeline = dlt.pipeline( pipeline_name="livingdocs_pipeline", destination="duckdb", dataset_name="livingdocs_data", ) load_info = pipeline.run(livingdocs_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("livingdocs_pipeline").dataset() sessions_df = data.publications_search.df() print(sessions_df.head())

SQL (DuckDB example):

SELECT * FROM livingdocs_data.publications_search LIMIT 10;

In a marimo or Jupyter notebook:

import dlt data = dlt.pipeline("livingdocs_pipeline").dataset() data.publications_search.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 LivingDocs 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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