MangaDex Python API Docs | dltHub
Build a MangaDex-to-database pipeline in Python using dlt with AI Workbench support for Claude Code, Cursor, and Codex.
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MangaDex API documentation is available at https://api.mangadex.org/docs. It includes authentication, manga, and other endpoints. For alternative usage, check https://mangadex-api.nedpals.xyz. The REST API base URL is https://api.mangadex.org and All requests that require authentication use 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 pip install "dlt[workspace]" and start loading MangaDex data in under 10 minutes.
What data can I load from MangaDex?
Here are some of the endpoints you can load from MangaDex:
| Resource | Endpoint | Method | Data selector | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| manga | /manga | GET | data | Manga list (searchable) |
| manga_by_id | /manga/{id} | GET | data | Get a single manga |
| chapter | /chapter | GET | data | Chapter list (searchable) |
| chapter_by_id | /chapter/{id} | GET | data | Get a single chapter |
| at_home_server | /at-home/server/{chapterId} | GET | Image delivery metadata (baseUrl, chapter data) | |
| cover | /cover | GET | data | Cover art list |
| author | /author | GET | data | Author list |
| group | /group | GET | data | Scanlation group list |
| user_me | /user/me | GET | data | Logged‑in user details |
| random_manga | /manga/random | GET | data | Random manga |
How do I authenticate with the MangaDex API?
MangaDex uses OAuth 2.0; authenticated requests must include the access token in an Authorization: Bearer <token> header.
1. Get your credentials
- Log into your MangaDex account. 2. In the API documentation or account area, create a Personal API Client (or register a Public client for other flows). 3. Note the generated client_id and client_secret. 4. Call the /auth/login endpoint with your username, password, client_id and client_secret to obtain an access token and refresh token. 5. Use the access token in the
Authorization: Bearer <token>header for authenticated requests.
2. Add them to .dlt/secrets.toml
[sources.mangadex_source] api_client_id = "your_client_id" api_client_secret = "your_client_secret" username = "your_mangadex_username" password = "your_mangadex_password"
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 MangaDex 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 mangadex_pipeline.py
If everything is configured correctly, you'll see output like this:
Pipeline mangadex_pipeline load step completed in 0.26 seconds 1 load package(s) were loaded to destination duckdb and into dataset mangadex_data The duckdb destination used duckdb:/mangadex.duckdb location to store data Load package 1749667187.541553 is LOADED and contains no failed jobs
Inspect your pipeline and data:
dlt pipeline mangadex_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 manga and chapter from the MangaDex 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 mangadex_source(access_token=dlt.secrets.value): config: RESTAPIConfig = { "client": { "base_url": "https://api.mangadex.org", "auth": { "type": "bearer", "token": access_token, }, }, "resources": [ {"name": "manga", "endpoint": {"path": "manga", "data_selector": "data"}}, {"name": "chapter", "endpoint": {"path": "chapter", "data_selector": "data"}} ], } yield from rest_api_resources(config) def get_data() -> None: pipeline = dlt.pipeline( pipeline_name="mangadex_pipeline", destination="duckdb", dataset_name="mangadex_data", ) load_info = pipeline.run(mangadex_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("mangadex_pipeline").dataset() sessions_df = data.manga.df() print(sessions_df.head())
SQL (DuckDB example):
SELECT * FROM mangadex_data.manga LIMIT 10;
In a marimo or Jupyter notebook:
import dlt data = dlt.pipeline("mangadex_pipeline").dataset() data.manga.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 MangaDex data to?
dlt supports loading into any of these destinations — only the destination parameter changes:
| Destination | Example 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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