Mempool Python API Docs | dltHub

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

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Mempool.space is an open-source Bitcoin blockchain explorer, mempool visualizer, fee estimator, and transaction accelerator platform. The REST API base URL is https://mempool.space/api and public by default, with X-Mempool-Auth header required for specific Pro endpoints.

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 Mempool data in under 10 minutes.


What data can I load from Mempool?

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

ResourceEndpointMethodData selectorDescription
address_transactionsapi/address/
/txs
GETReturns address transactions
block_transactionsapi/block/
/txs[/
]
GETReturns block transactions
recent_blocksapi/v1/blocks[/
]
GETReturns recent blocks
transactionapi/tx/
GETReturns transaction details
recommended_feesapi/v1/fees/recommendedGETReturns recommended fee rates

How do I authenticate with the Mempool API?

Most endpoints are public and require no authentication. The X-Mempool-Auth header is required only for specific Accelerator Pro endpoints to manage personal account acceleration.

1. Get your credentials

Most mempool.space REST API endpoints are public and do not require authentication. Authentication is only required for 'Accelerator (Pro)' endpoints. To obtain credentials: 1. Create an account at https://mempool.space and sign in. 2. Navigate to the Accelerator page at https://mempool.space/accelerator. 3. Top up your balance with Bitcoin or Lightning. 4. Generate or copy your 'X-Mempool-Auth' API token from your account settings.

2. Add them to .dlt/secrets.toml

[sources.mempool_source] X-Mempool-Auth = "your_api_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 Mempool 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 mempool_pipeline.py

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

Pipeline mempool_pipeline load step completed in 0.26 seconds 1 load package(s) were loaded to destination duckdb and into dataset mempool_data The duckdb destination used duckdb:/mempool.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 v1/fees/recommended and tx/{txid} from the Mempool 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 mempool_source(mempool_auth_token=dlt.secrets.value): config: RESTAPIConfig = { "client": { "base_url": "https://mempool.space/api", "auth": {"type": "api_key", "api_key": mempool_auth_token, "name": "X-Mempool-Auth", "location": "header"}, }, "resources": [ {"name": "address_transactions", "endpoint": {"path": "api/address/:address/txs"}}, {"name": "block_transactions", "endpoint": {"path": "api/block/:hash/txs/:start_index"}} ], } yield from rest_api_resources(config) def get_data() -> None: pipeline = dlt.pipeline( pipeline_name="mempool_pipeline", destination="duckdb", dataset_name="mempool_data", ) load_info = pipeline.run(mempool_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("mempool_pipeline").dataset() sessions_df = data.transaction.df() print(sessions_df.head())

SQL (DuckDB example):

SELECT * FROM mempool_data.transaction LIMIT 10;

In a marimo or Jupyter notebook:

import dlt data = dlt.pipeline("mempool_pipeline").dataset() data.transaction.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 Mempool 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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