Okta Python API Docs | dltHub

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

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Okta is an identity and access management platform that provides REST APIs to manage users, groups, apps, sessions, logs, and other Okta objects. The REST API base URL is https://{yourOktaDomain}/api/v1 and Okta supports SSWS API tokens (Authorization: SSWS ) and OAuth 2.0 bearer tokens..

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 Okta data in under 10 minutes.


What data can I load from Okta?

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

ResourceEndpointMethodData selectorDescription
users/usersGETList users in the org
user/users/{userId}GETRetrieve a single user
groups/groupsGETList groups
group_users/groups/{groupId}/usersGETList users in a group
apps/appsGETList applications
sessions/sessionsGETList active sessions
system_log/logsGETList system log events
users_me/users/meGETGet current user profile
apps_assigned/apps/{appId}/usersGETList users assigned to an app
groups_assigned_apps/groups/{groupId}/appsGETList apps assigned to a group

How do I authenticate with the Okta API?

For API token auth include header 'Authorization: SSWS <API_TOKEN>'. For OAuth use 'Authorization: Bearer <ACCESS_TOKEN>'. Set 'Accept: application/json' and 'Content-Type: application/json'.

1. Get your credentials

  1. Sign in to Okta Admin Console. 2. Navigate to Security → API → Tokens. 3. Click "Create Token". 4. Give the token a name and confirm. 5. Copy the token value shown (it is displayed only once). Store the token securely and use it in the Authorization header as "SSWS ". For OAuth, create a Service Application and request an access token following the OAuth guides.

2. Add them to .dlt/secrets.toml

[sources.okta_management_source] api_token = "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 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 Okta 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 okta_management_pipeline.py

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

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

Inspect your pipeline and data:

dlt pipeline okta_management_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 users and groups from the Okta 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 okta_management_source(api_token=dlt.secrets.value): config: RESTAPIConfig = { "client": { "base_url": "https://{yourOktaDomain}/api/v1", "auth": { "type": "api_key", "api_token": api_token, }, }, "resources": [ {"name": "users", "endpoint": {"path": "users"}}, {"name": "groups", "endpoint": {"path": "groups"}} ], } yield from rest_api_resources(config) def get_data() -> None: pipeline = dlt.pipeline( pipeline_name="okta_management_pipeline", destination="duckdb", dataset_name="okta_management_data", ) load_info = pipeline.run(okta_management_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("okta_management_pipeline").dataset() sessions_df = data.users.df() print(sessions_df.head())

SQL (DuckDB example):

SELECT * FROM okta_management_data.users LIMIT 10;

In a marimo or Jupyter notebook:

import dlt data = dlt.pipeline("okta_management_pipeline").dataset() data.users.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 Okta 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.


Troubleshooting

Authentication failures

Ensure the Authorization header is set correctly: for API tokens use Authorization: SSWS <token>; for OAuth use Authorization: Bearer <token>. A 401 response means missing or invalid credentials.

Rate limits and throttling

Okta returns 429 Too Many Requests when the rate limit is hit. Honor the Retry-After header and implement exponential backoff.

Pagination

List endpoints use cursor‑based pagination. Follow the Link response header with rel="next" and pass the opaque after or before query parameter provided by the API. Do not construct cursor values yourself.

Error responses

Error bodies are JSON objects containing errorCode, errorSummary, errorId, and errorCauses. Example:

{ "errorCode": "E0000001", "errorSummary": "Api validation failed", "errorId": "...", "errorCauses": [] }

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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