The New York Times Python API Docs | dltHub

The New York Times API is a collection of REST endpoints that provide access to news articles, top stories, archives, most popular items, and Times Wire content. The REST API base URL is https://api.nytimes.com and All requests require an API key supplied as the api-key query parameter..

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 The New York Times data in under 10 minutes.

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What data can I load from The New York Times?

Here are some of the endpoints you can load from The New York Times:

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How do I authenticate with the The New York Times API?

Include the api-key query parameter with your API key; no Authorization header is needed.

1. Get your credentials

1. Sign in at https://developer.nytimes.com/.
2. Go to the “Apps” section and create a new application.
3. Select the APIs you need and generate an API key for that app.
4. Copy the generated key and use it as the api-key query parameter in requests.

2. Add them to .dlt/secrets.toml

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[sources.nytimes_data_source]
api_key = "your_nytimes_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.

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How do I set up and run the pipeline?

Set up a virtual environment and install dlt:

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uv venv && source .venv/bin/activate
uv pip install "dlt[workspace]"

1. Install the dlt AI Workbench:

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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:

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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 The New York Times 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:

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python nytimes_data_pipeline.py

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

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

Inspect your pipeline and data:

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dlt pipeline nytimes_data_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.

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Python pipeline example

This example loads articlesearch and top_stories from the The New York Times API into DuckDB. It mirrors the endpoint and data selector configuration from the table above:

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import dlt
from dlt.sources.rest_api import RESTAPIConfig, rest_api_resources

@dlt.source
def nytimes_data_source(api_key=dlt.secrets.value):
    config: RESTAPIConfig = {
        "client": {
            "base_url": "https://api.nytimes.com",
            "auth": {
                "type": "api_key",
                "api_key": api_key,
            },
        },
        "resources": [
            {"name": "articlesearch", "endpoint": {"path": "articlesearch.json", "data_selector": "docs"}},
            {"name": "top_stories", "endpoint": {"path": "{section}.json", "data_selector": "results"}}
        ],
    }
    yield from rest_api_resources(config)


def get_data() -> None:
    pipeline = dlt.pipeline(
        pipeline_name="nytimes_data_pipeline",
        destination="duckdb",
        dataset_name="nytimes_data_data",
    )
    load_info = pipeline.run(nytimes_data_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.

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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):

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import dlt

data = dlt.pipeline("nytimes_data_pipeline").dataset()
sessions_df = data.articlesearch.df()
print(sessions_df.head())

SQL (DuckDB example):

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SELECT * FROM nytimes_data_data.articlesearch LIMIT 10;

In a marimo or Jupyter notebook:

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import dlt

data = dlt.pipeline("nytimes_data_pipeline").dataset()
data.articlesearch.df().head()

See how to explore your data in marimo Notebooks and how to query your data in Python with dataset.

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What destinations can I load The New York Times data to?

dlt supports loading into any of these destinations — only the destination parameter changes:

Change the destination in dlt.pipeline(destination="snowflake") and add credentials in .dlt/secrets.toml. See the full destinations list.

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Troubleshooting

400 Bad Request

Malformed parameters or missing required fields.

401 Unauthorized

Missing or invalid api-key. Ensure the key is included in the query string.

429 Too Many Requests

Rate limit exceeded (per‑minute or per‑day). Reduce request frequency or upgrade your plan.

404 Not Found

Invalid endpoint or section path.

Pagination

Article Search uses the page query parameter (0‑based). The response contains a meta object with hits and offset for navigation.

Ensure that the API key is valid to avoid 401 Unauthorized errors. Also, verify endpoint paths and parameters to avoid 404 Not Found errors.

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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.

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dlt ai toolkit data-exploration install
dlt ai toolkit dlthub-runtime install

• How to deploy a pipeline
• How to explore your data in marimo Notebooks
• How to query your data in Python with dataset
• Join the dlt community on Slack