Marqeta Python API Docs | dltHub

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

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Marqeta Core API provides card issuing, payment, user, and program-management REST endpoints for Marqeta programs. The REST API base URL is https://sandbox-api.marqeta.com/v3 for the public sandbox; production uses the unique program-specific https://<programname>-api.marqeta.com/v3 URL and HTTP Basic Authentication using an application token and an access token.

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 Marqeta data in under 10 minutes.


What data can I load from Marqeta?

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

ResourceEndpointMethodData selectorDescription
users/usersGETRetrieves a list of users.
cards/cardsGETRetrieves a list of cards.
accounts/accountsGETRetrieves a list of credit accounts.
journal_entries/accounts/{account_token}/journalentriesGETRetrieves a list of journal entries.
program_transfers/programtransfersGETRetrieves a list of program transfers.

How do I authenticate with the Marqeta API?

Send the Authorization header using Basic authentication, with the application token as the username and the access token as the password; the password may be omitted for basic application-token authentication or may be an admin, user, or single-use access token depending on the authorization level. For POST and PUT requests, also send Content-Type: application/json. The Basic token format is the Base64 encoding of application_token

, commonly represented as Authorization: Basic .

1. Get your credentials

To obtain your API credentials, follow these steps: 1. Sign in to your Marqeta account at auth.marqeta.com or via the Sign In link on the Marqeta documentation site. 2. Once authenticated, locate and select 'Dashboard' in the upper-right corner of the page. 3. Navigate to the 'API Keys' section within your dashboard to view your credentials.

2. Add them to .dlt/secrets.toml

[sources.marqeta_source] application_token = "YOUR_APPLICATION_TOKEN" admin_access_token = "YOUR_ADMIN_ACCESS_TOKEN" base_url = "https://sandbox-api.marqeta.com/v3"

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 Marqeta 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 marqeta_pipeline.py

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

Pipeline marqeta_pipeline load step completed in 0.26 seconds 1 load package(s) were loaded to destination duckdb and into dataset marqeta_data The duckdb destination used duckdb:/marqeta.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 /credentials/apikeys/applications/self/accesstokens and /users/auth/login from the Marqeta 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 marqeta_source(application_token=dlt.secrets.value): config: RESTAPIConfig = { "client": { "base_url": "https://sandbox-api.marqeta.com/v3 for the public sandbox; production uses the unique program-specific https://<programname>-api.marqeta.com/v3 URL", "auth": {"type": "http_basic", "username": "REPLACE_ME", "password": application_token}, }, "resources": [ {"name": "users", "endpoint": {"path": "users"}}, {"name": "cards", "endpoint": {"path": "cards"}} ], } yield from rest_api_resources(config) def get_data() -> None: pipeline = dlt.pipeline( pipeline_name="marqeta_pipeline", destination="duckdb", dataset_name="marqeta_data", ) load_info = pipeline.run(marqeta_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("marqeta_pipeline").dataset() sessions_df = data.users.df() print(sessions_df.head())

SQL (DuckDB example):

SELECT * FROM marqeta_data.users LIMIT 10;

In a marimo or Jupyter notebook:

import dlt data = dlt.pipeline("marqeta_pipeline").dataset() data.users.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 Marqeta 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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