PeopleForce Python API Docs | dltHub

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

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PeopleForce provides a REST API for managing HR entities such as employees, candidates, departments, positions, and related data. The REST API base URL is https://app.peopleforce.io/api/public/v2 and Authenticate requests using an API key sent in the X-API-KEY header.

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 PeopleForce data in under 10 minutes.


What data can I load from PeopleForce?

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

ResourceEndpointMethodData selectorDescription
employeesemployeesGETdataList employees (paginated)
employees_terminatedemployees/terminatedGETdataList terminated employees (paginated)
teamsteamsGETdataList teams (paginated)
candidatesrecruitment/candidatesGETdataList recruitment candidates (paginated)
employee_tasksemployees/{employee_id}/tasksGETdataList employee tasks (paginated)
employees_documentsemployees/{employee_id}/documentsGETdataList documents for an employee (pagination not mentioned)
document_foldersdocument_foldersGETdataList document folders (pagination not mentioned)
knowledge_base_articlesknowledge_base/articlesGETdataList knowledge base articles (pagination not mentioned)

How do I authenticate with the PeopleForce API?

Include your PeopleForce API key in the request header named X-API-KEY; the PeopleForce docs state all API requests must be made over HTTPS and unauthenticated requests will fail

1. Get your credentials

  1. Log in to PeopleForce.
  2. Open the API key generation page: Settings → Security → API keys (some docs also phrase it as Settings → Open API keys).
  3. Click Generate (or “Generate API key”) to create a new key.
  4. Choose the API key type that matches your integration: - Company API key: full access to PeopleForce API and employee data. - Career API key: limited access intended for displaying vacancies on a public-facing website.
  5. If prompted, set key metadata such as name (and optionally permissions/whitelisted IPs).
  6. Copy the generated API key token immediately and store it securely (it will be needed for making authenticated REST requests).
  7. Use the token in every API request by sending it as the HTTP header X-API-KEY.
  8. Ensure requests use HTTPS; unauthenticated requests or plain HTTP will fail.

2. Add them to .dlt/secrets.toml

[sources.peopleforce_source] X-API-KEY = "your_peopleforce_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.


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 PeopleForce 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 peopleforce_pipeline.py

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

Pipeline peopleforce_pipeline load step completed in 0.26 seconds 1 load package(s) were loaded to destination duckdb and into dataset peopleforce_data The duckdb destination used duckdb:/peopleforce.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/public/v3/recruitment/vacancies and /api/public/v3/recruitment/vacancies/{id} from the PeopleForce 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 peopleforce_source(api_key=dlt.secrets.value): config: RESTAPIConfig = { "client": { "base_url": "https://app.peopleforce.io/api/public/v2", "auth": {"type": "api_key", "api_key": api_key, "name": "X-API-KEY", "location": "header"}, }, "resources": [ {"name": "employees", "endpoint": {"path": "employees", "data_selector": "data"}}, {"name": "candidates", "endpoint": {"path": "recruitment/candidates", "data_selector": "data"}} ], } yield from rest_api_resources(config) def get_data() -> None: pipeline = dlt.pipeline( pipeline_name="peopleforce_pipeline", destination="duckdb", dataset_name="peopleforce_data", ) load_info = pipeline.run(peopleforce_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("peopleforce_pipeline").dataset() sessions_df = data.employees.df() print(sessions_df.head())

SQL (DuckDB example):

SELECT * FROM peopleforce_data.employees LIMIT 10;

In a marimo or Jupyter notebook:

import dlt data = dlt.pipeline("peopleforce_pipeline").dataset() data.employees.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 PeopleForce 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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