OpenMetadata Python API Docs | dltHub
Build a OpenMetadata-to-database pipeline in Python using dlt with AI Workbench support for Claude Code, Cursor, and Codex.
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OpenMetadata is an open source platform that provides a unified metadata service for data discovery, governance, and observability through a REST API and native SDKs. The REST API base URL is https://<your-instance-domain>/api/v1 and All API requests require authentication using a JWT bearer token..
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 OpenMetadata data in under 10 minutes.
What data can I load from OpenMetadata?
Here are some of the endpoints you can load from OpenMetadata:
| Resource | Endpoint | Method | Data selector | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| tables | api/v1/tables | GET | data | Lists all tables with optional filtering and cursor-based pagination. |
| api_endpoints | api/v1/apiEndpoints | GET | data | Lists all API endpoints with optional filtering and cursor-based pagination. |
| database_services | api/v1/services/databaseServices | GET | data | Lists database services. |
| dashboards | api/v1/dashboards | GET | data | Lists dashboards with optional filtering and pagination. |
| users | api/v1/users | GET | data | Lists users in the catalog. |
How do I authenticate with the OpenMetadata API?
The API requires a JWT bearer token to be provided in the 'Authorization' header using the format 'Authorization: Bearer '. Additionally, a 'Content-Type: application/json' header is standard for requests.
1. Get your credentials
To obtain a Personal Access Token (PAT) for OpenMetadata REST API authentication, follow these steps: 1. Log in to your OpenMetadata instance. 2. Click your user profile icon in the top-right corner of the UI. 3. Select 'View Profile' or directly navigate to the 'Access Tokens' tab. 4. Click 'Generate New Token'. 5. Select your desired expiration period and click 'Generate'. 6. Copy the token immediately, as it cannot be retrieved again after leaving the screen. For service accounts or programmatic ingestion, you can alternatively navigate to 'Settings > Bots', select the relevant bot (e.g., 'ingestion-bot'), and copy the JWT token from the bot details page.
2. Add them to .dlt/secrets.toml
[sources.openmetadata_source] openmetadata_host = "https://your-company.open-metadata.org/api" openmetadata_jwt_token = "your-jwt-token"
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 OpenMetadata 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 openmetadata_pipeline.py
If everything is configured correctly, you'll see output like this:
Pipeline openmetadata_pipeline load step completed in 0.26 seconds 1 load package(s) were loaded to destination duckdb and into dataset openmetadata_data The duckdb destination used duckdb:/openmetadata.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/v1/tables and /api/v1/dashboards from the OpenMetadata 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 openmetadata_source(jwt_token=dlt.secrets.value): config: RESTAPIConfig = { "client": { "base_url": "https://<your-instance-domain>/api/v1", "auth": {"type": "bearer", "token": jwt_token}, }, "resources": [ {"name": "tables", "endpoint": {"path": "api/v1/tables", "data_selector": "data"}}, {"name": "api_endpoints", "endpoint": {"path": "api/v1/apiEndpoints", "data_selector": "data"}} ], } yield from rest_api_resources(config) def get_data() -> None: pipeline = dlt.pipeline( pipeline_name="openmetadata_pipeline", destination="duckdb", dataset_name="openmetadata_data", ) load_info = pipeline.run(openmetadata_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("openmetadata_pipeline").dataset() sessions_df = data.tables.df() print(sessions_df.head())
SQL (DuckDB example):
SELECT * FROM openmetadata_data.tables LIMIT 10;
In a marimo or Jupyter notebook:
import dlt data = dlt.pipeline("openmetadata_pipeline").dataset() data.tables.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 OpenMetadata 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.
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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