Northpass Python API Docs | dltHub
Build a Northpass-to-database pipeline in Python using dlt with AI Workbench support for Claude Code, Cursor, and Codex.
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Northpass is a learning management platform exposing a JSON:API‑compatible REST API for managing courses, people, enrollments and related resources. The REST API base URL is https://api.northpass.com/v2 and All requests require an API key (passed via header or query param)..
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 Northpass data in under 10 minutes.
What data can I load from Northpass?
Here are some of the endpoints you can load from Northpass:
| Resource | Endpoint | Method | Data selector | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| courses | /v2/courses | GET | data | List courses (supports pagination, filtering, search, include) |
| people | /v2/people | GET | data | List people (supports pagination, filtering, search, include) |
| enrollments | /v2/enrollments | GET | data | List enrollments for people/courses |
| activities | /v2/activities | GET | data | List activities (user/course activity records) |
| organizations | /v2/organizations | GET | data | List organizations (accounts/companies) |
| pages_search | /app/search | GET | results.items | Site search endpoint used by Northpass pages (returns results.items array) |
How do I authenticate with the Northpass API?
Northpass uses a simple API key. You may pass it as the X-Api-Key HTTP header or as the api_key query parameter. All requests must use HTTPS.
1. Get your credentials
- Sign in to your Northpass Admin panel. 2) Go to Apps → Api Access (or API Access). 3) Create or copy an API key. 4) Use the key in the X-Api-Key header or api_key query parameter.
2. Add them to .dlt/secrets.toml
[sources.northpass_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 Northpass 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 northpass_pipeline.py
If everything is configured correctly, you'll see output like this:
Pipeline northpass_pipeline load step completed in 0.26 seconds 1 load package(s) were loaded to destination duckdb and into dataset northpass_data The duckdb destination used duckdb:/northpass.duckdb location to store data Load package 1749667187.541553 is LOADED and contains no failed jobs
Inspect your pipeline and data:
dlt pipeline northpass_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 courses and people from the Northpass 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 northpass_source(api_key=dlt.secrets.value): config: RESTAPIConfig = { "client": { "base_url": "https://api.northpass.com/v2", "auth": { "type": "api_key", "api_key": api_key, }, }, "resources": [ {"name": "courses", "endpoint": {"path": "v2/courses", "data_selector": "data"}}, {"name": "people", "endpoint": {"path": "v2/people", "data_selector": "data"}} ], } yield from rest_api_resources(config) def get_data() -> None: pipeline = dlt.pipeline( pipeline_name="northpass_pipeline", destination="duckdb", dataset_name="northpass_data", ) load_info = pipeline.run(northpass_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("northpass_pipeline").dataset() sessions_df = data.courses.df() print(sessions_df.head())
SQL (DuckDB example):
SELECT * FROM northpass_data.courses LIMIT 10;
In a marimo or Jupyter notebook:
import dlt data = dlt.pipeline("northpass_pipeline").dataset() data.courses.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 Northpass 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.
Troubleshooting
Authentication failures (401)
If the API key is missing or invalid you will receive a 401 response. Ensure the X-Api-Key header or api_key query parameter contains the correct key and that the request uses HTTPS.
Pagination and large result sets
Northpass uses offset‑style pagination with page and limit query parameters. Pagination links are provided in the top‑level links object according to the JSON:API spec. Continue fetching pages until the next link is absent.
Errors (validation, 4xx, 5xx)
Error responses follow the JSON:API error format. Validation errors return a 4xx status with a body like { "errors": [ { "status": "422", "title": "Invalid Attribute", "detail": "...", "source": { "pointer": "/data/attributes/..." } } ] }.
Ensure that the API key is valid to avoid 401 Unauthorized errors. Also, verify endpoint paths and parameters to avoid 404 Not Found errors.
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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