MailSlurp Python API Docs | dltHub

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

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MailSlurp API allows sending and receiving emails and SMS. It includes functionalities for fetching emails, replying, and sending new ones. The REST API documentation is available for detailed usage. The REST API base URL is https://api.mailslurp.com and all requests require an API key passed in the x-api-key header or ?apiKey= query parameter.

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 MailSlurp data in under 10 minutes.


What data can I load from MailSlurp?

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

ResourceEndpointMethodData selectorDescription
inboxes/inboxesGETList inboxes (top‑level array).
inboxes_paginated/inboxes/paginatedGETcontentList inboxes with pagination; records are in content.
inbox_by_id/inboxes/{inboxId}GETRetrieve a single inbox by ID.
inbox_emails/inboxes/{inboxId}/emailsGETcontentList emails for an inbox (paginated, content).
emails/emailsGETcontentList all emails across inboxes (paginated, content).
email_by_id/emails/{emailId}GETGet full email details by ID.
attachments/attachmentsGETcontentList attachments (paginated, content).
attachment_bytes/attachments/{attachmentId}/bytesGETDownload attachment bytes (binary).
emails_unread_count/emails/unreadCountGETGet unread email count (object with count).
webhooks_paginated/webhooks/paginatedGETcontentList webhooks (paginated, content).

How do I authenticate with the MailSlurp API?

MailSlurp uses an API key. Provide the key in the x-api-key HTTP header or as the query parameter apiKey.

1. Get your credentials

  1. Sign in to the MailSlurp dashboard at https://app.mailslurp.com
  2. Navigate to the API keys section in your account settings.
  3. Create a new API key or copy an existing one.
  4. Store the key securely and use it in the x-api-key header or ?apiKey= query parameter for all API calls.

2. Add them to .dlt/secrets.toml

[sources.mailslurp_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 MailSlurp 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 mailslurp_pipeline.py

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

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

Inspect your pipeline and data:

dlt pipeline mailslurp_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 inboxes and emails from the MailSlurp 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 mailslurp_source(api_key=dlt.secrets.value): config: RESTAPIConfig = { "client": { "base_url": "https://api.mailslurp.com", "auth": { "type": "api_key", "api_key": api_key, }, }, "resources": [ {"name": "inboxes", "endpoint": {"path": "inboxes"}}, {"name": "emails", "endpoint": {"path": "emails", "data_selector": "content"}} ], } yield from rest_api_resources(config) def get_data() -> None: pipeline = dlt.pipeline( pipeline_name="mailslurp_pipeline", destination="duckdb", dataset_name="mailslurp_data", ) load_info = pipeline.run(mailslurp_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("mailslurp_pipeline").dataset() sessions_df = data.inboxes.df() print(sessions_df.head())

SQL (DuckDB example):

SELECT * FROM mailslurp_data.inboxes LIMIT 10;

In a marimo or Jupyter notebook:

import dlt data = dlt.pipeline("mailslurp_pipeline").dataset() data.inboxes.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 MailSlurp 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 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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