Nutshell Python API Docs | dltHub
Build a Nutshell-to-database pipeline in Python using dlt with AI Workbench support for Claude Code, Cursor, and Codex.
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Nutshell is a sales CRM platform that provides a JSON‑RPC API for accessing leads, contacts, accounts, and other data. The REST API base URL is https://app.nutshell.com/api/v1/json and All requests require HTTP Basic authentication using the API key as the password..
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 Nutshell data in under 10 minutes.
What data can I load from Nutshell?
Here are some of the endpoints you can load from Nutshell:
| Resource | Endpoint | Method | Data selector | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| find_leads | jsonrpc | findLeads | result.leads | Retrieves a list of lead objects. |
| find_contacts | jsonrpc | findContacts | result.contacts | Retrieves a list of contact objects. |
| find_accounts | jsonrpc | findAccounts | result.accounts | Retrieves a list of account objects. |
| find_users | jsonrpc | findUsers | result.users | Retrieves a list of user objects. |
| get_lead | jsonrpc | getLead | result.lead | Retrieves a single lead by ID. |
How do I authenticate with the Nutshell API?
Include an Authorization header with HTTP Basic credentials: the username is your company domain or email, and the password is the API key.
1. Get your credentials
- Log in to your Nutshell account.
- Click your profile picture and select Settings.
- In the left menu choose API Keys.
- Click Create New Key, give it a name, and confirm.
- Copy the generated API key; it will be used as the password in HTTP Basic authentication.
2. Add them to .dlt/secrets.toml
[sources.nutshell_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 Nutshell 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 nutshell_pipeline.py
If everything is configured correctly, you'll see output like this:
Pipeline nutshell_pipeline load step completed in 0.26 seconds 1 load package(s) were loaded to destination duckdb and into dataset nutshell_data The duckdb destination used duckdb:/nutshell.duckdb location to store data Load package 1749667187.541553 is LOADED and contains no failed jobs
Inspect your pipeline and data:
dlt pipeline nutshell_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 find_leads and find_contacts from the Nutshell 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 nutshell_source(api_key=dlt.secrets.value): config: RESTAPIConfig = { "client": { "base_url": "https://app.nutshell.com/api/v1/json", "auth": { "type": "http_basic", "password": api_key, }, }, "resources": [ {"name": "find_leads", "endpoint": {"path": "jsonrpc", "data_selector": "result.leads"}}, {"name": "find_contacts", "endpoint": {"path": "jsonrpc", "data_selector": "result.contacts"}} ], } yield from rest_api_resources(config) def get_data() -> None: pipeline = dlt.pipeline( pipeline_name="nutshell_pipeline", destination="duckdb", dataset_name="nutshell_data", ) load_info = pipeline.run(nutshell_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("nutshell_pipeline").dataset() sessions_df = data.find_leads.df() print(sessions_df.head())
SQL (DuckDB example):
SELECT * FROM nutshell_data.find_leads LIMIT 10;
In a marimo or Jupyter notebook:
import dlt data = dlt.pipeline("nutshell_pipeline").dataset() data.find_leads.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 Nutshell 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
- Error 401 Unauthorized – Occurs when the username or API key is incorrect or missing. Verify the HTTP Basic credentials and that the API key is active.
Rate limits
- Error 429 Too Many Requests – The API limits the number of
find*calls with full responses. Reduce request frequency or use stub responses where possible.
Pagination
- The Nutshell API does not provide built‑in pagination for
find*methods; you must implement client‑side pagination by using offset/limit parameters if supported, or request smaller result sets.
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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