Open Data Discovery Python API Docs | dltHub

Build a Open Data Discovery-to-database pipeline in Python using dlt with AI harness support for Claude Code, Cursor, and Codex.

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Open Data Discovery is a platform for data cataloging and discovery that provides a REST API for programmatic access to catalog metadata and ingestion operations. The REST API base URL is http://localhost:8080/ and all requests require an 'X-API-Key' header for server-to-server authentication.

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 add "dlt[hub]" and start loading Open Data Discovery data in under 10 minutes.


What data can I load from Open Data Discovery?

Here are some of the endpoints you can load from Open Data Discovery:

ResourceEndpointMethodData selectorDescription
directory/api/directoryGETLevel 1: List registered ODDRN prefixes.
directory_datasources/api/directory/datasourcesGETLevel 2: List data sources for a prefix.
relationships/api/relationshipsGETDataEntityRelationshipListPaginated list of relationships.
lineage_upstream/api/dataentities/{data_entity_id}/lineage/upstreamGETGet upstream lineage for an entity.
lineage_downstream/api/dataentities/{data_entity_id}/lineage/downstreamGETGet downstream lineage for an entity.

How do I authenticate with the Open Data Discovery API?

Requests are authenticated using a server-to-server (S2S) API key presented in the 'X-API-Key' HTTP header. This mechanism is enabled by setting 'auth.s2s.enabled' to true in the platform configuration.

1. Get your credentials

To obtain credentials for the Open Data Discovery (ODD) Platform API, you must use Server-to-Server (S2S) authentication. First, ensure S2S is enabled in your platform configuration by setting 'auth.s2s.enabled' to 'true'. Then, navigate to the Management section in your ODD Platform UI (typically at '{platform-base-url}/management/collectors'). From there, you can add a collector or manage existing ones to generate or view the required token. This token acts as your API key.

2. Add them to .dlt/secrets.toml

[sources.open_data_discovery_source] api_key = "your_long_random_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 init uv add "dlt[hub]"

1. Install the dlt AI harness:

uv run dlthub 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:

uv run dlthub ai toolkit install rest-api-pipeline

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 Open Data Discovery 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:

uv run python open_data_discovery_pipeline.py

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

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

Inspect your pipeline and data:

uv run dlthub 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 api/datasources and ingestion/entities from the Open Data Discovery 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 open_data_discovery_source(api_key=dlt.secrets.value): config: RESTAPIConfig = { "client": { "base_url": "http://localhost:8080/", "auth": {"type": "api_key", "api_key": api_key, "name": "X-API-Key", "location": "header"}, }, "resources": [ {"name": "directory", "endpoint": {"path": "api/directory/datasources/{data_source_id}", "data_selector": "items"}}, {"name": "relationships", "endpoint": {"path": "api/relationships", "data_selector": "items"}} ], } yield from rest_api_resources(config) def get_data() -> None: pipeline = dlt.pipeline( pipeline_name="open_data_discovery_pipeline", destination="duckdb", dataset_name="open_data_discovery_data", ) load_info = pipeline.run(open_data_discovery_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("open_data_discovery_pipeline").dataset() sessions_df = data.relationships.df() print(sessions_df.head())

SQL (DuckDB example):

SELECT * FROM open_data_discovery_data.relationships LIMIT 10;

In a marimo or Jupyter notebook:

import dlt data = dlt.pipeline("open_data_discovery_pipeline").dataset() data.relationships.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 Open Data Discovery 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.


Next steps

Continue your data engineering journey with the other toolkits of the dltHub AI harness:

  • data-exploration — Build custom notebooks, charts, and dashboards for deeper analysis with marimo notebooks.
  • dlthub-platform — Deploy, schedule, and monitor your pipeline in production.
uv run dlthub ai toolkit install data-exploration uv run dlthub ai toolkit install dlthub-platform

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