Onshape Python API Docs | dltHub

Onshape REST API allows real-time access to Onshape data; use API keys for authentication; documentation is available at onshape-public.github.io/docs/api-intro. The REST API base URL is https://cad.onshape.com/api and API Keys via HTTP Basic (access key + secret key) for all requests.

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 Onshape data in under 10 minutes.

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What data can I load from Onshape?

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

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How do I authenticate with the Onshape API?

Onshape uses API Keys (access key and secret key). Clients send the access key as the username and the secret key as the password using HTTP Basic Authorization in the Authorization header (or supply Basic CREDENTIALS). Include appropriate Accept and Content-Type headers (e.g. application/json; charset=UTF-8).

1. Get your credentials

1. Sign in to Onshape at https://cad.onshape.com (or your enterprise host). 2) Open the Developer Portal: https://cad.onshape.com/appstore/dev-portal. 3) In the left pane click 'API keys'. 4) Click 'Create new API key'. 5) Note/copy both the access key and secret key from the pop‑up (save the secret; it is shown only once).

2. Add them to .dlt/secrets.toml

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[sources.onshape_source]
access_key = "YOUR_ACCESS_KEY"
secret_key = "YOUR_SECRET_KEY"

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 Onshape 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 onshape_pipeline.py

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

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Pipeline onshape_pipeline load step completed in 0.26 seconds
1 load package(s) were loaded to destination duckdb and into dataset onshape_data
The duckdb destination used duckdb:/onshape.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 onshape_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 documents and parts from the Onshape 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 onshape_source(access_key, secret_key=dlt.secrets.value):
    config: RESTAPIConfig = {
        "client": {
            "base_url": "https://cad.onshape.com/api",
            "auth": {
                "type": "http_basic",
                "secret_key": access_key, secret_key,
            },
        },
        "resources": [
            {"name": "documents", "endpoint": {"path": "documents/{did}"}},
            {"name": "parts", "endpoint": {"path": "parts/d/{did}/w/{wid}/e/{eid}/parts"}}
        ],
    }
    yield from rest_api_resources(config)


def get_data() -> None:
    pipeline = dlt.pipeline(
        pipeline_name="onshape_pipeline",
        destination="duckdb",
        dataset_name="onshape_data",
    )
    load_info = pipeline.run(onshape_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("onshape_pipeline").dataset()
sessions_df = data.documents.df()
print(sessions_df.head())

SQL (DuckDB example):

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SELECT * FROM onshape_data.documents LIMIT 10;

In a marimo or Jupyter notebook:

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import dlt

data = dlt.pipeline("onshape_pipeline").dataset()
data.documents.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 Onshape 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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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