MyAnimeList Python API Docs | dltHub

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

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MyAnimeList API documentation is available at https://myanimelist.net/clubs.php?cid=13727. Authentication is required for accessing the API. Sample code and further details are provided there. The REST API base URL is https://api.myanimelist.net/v0.20/ and All requests require a Bearer token for authentication using OAuth2.0 with Authorization Code Grant with PKCE..

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 MyAnimeList data in under 10 minutes.


What data can I load from MyAnimeList?

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

ResourceEndpointMethodData selectorDescription
anime_my_list_statusanime/{anime_id}/my_list_statusGETGet the user's list status for a specific anime.

How do I authenticate with the MyAnimeList API?

The MyAnimeList API uses OAuth2.0 with the Authorization Code Grant with PKCE. All API requests must include an 'Authorization' header with a 'Bearer' token.

1. Get your credentials

  1. Log in to your MyAnimeList account.
  2. Navigate to your profile settings.
  3. Go to the 'API' tab.
  4. Provide information about your application to obtain a client ID.

2. Add them to .dlt/secrets.toml

[sources.myanimelist_source] access_token = "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 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 MyAnimeList 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 myanimelist_pipeline.py

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

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

Inspect your pipeline and data:

dlt pipeline myanimelist_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 anime_my_list_status from the MyAnimeList 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 myanimelist_source(access_token=dlt.secrets.value): config: RESTAPIConfig = { "client": { "base_url": "https://api.myanimelist.net/v0.20/", "auth": { "type": "bearer", "token": access_token, }, }, "resources": [ {"name": "anime_my_list_status", "endpoint": {"path": "anime/{anime_id}/my_list_status"}} ], } yield from rest_api_resources(config) def get_data() -> None: pipeline = dlt.pipeline( pipeline_name="myanimelist_pipeline", destination="duckdb", dataset_name="myanimelist_data", ) load_info = pipeline.run(myanimelist_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("myanimelist_pipeline").dataset() sessions_df = data.anime_my_list_status.df() print(sessions_df.head())

SQL (DuckDB example):

SELECT * FROM myanimelist_data.anime_my_list_status LIMIT 10;

In a marimo or Jupyter notebook:

import dlt data = dlt.pipeline("myanimelist_pipeline").dataset() data.anime_my_list_status.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 MyAnimeList 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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