Play.ht Python API Docs | dltHub

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

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Play.ht API provides a list of prebuilt voices for text-to-speech. The latest list includes over 600 AI voices. Access the full list via the provided URL. The REST API base URL is https://api.play.ht (v2) and https://play.ht/api/v1 (v1) and All requests require an API key and a user ID sent in headers..

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 Play.ht data in under 10 minutes.


What data can I load from Play.ht?

Here are some of the endpoints you can load from Play.ht:

ResourceEndpointMethodData selectorDescription
get_voiceshttps://play.ht/api/v1/getVoicesGETReturns list of available Standard & Premium voices
get_voices_ultrahttps://play.ht/api/v1/getVoices?ultra=trueGETReturns list of Ultra‑realistic voices (ultra=true)
get_cloned_voiceshttps://play.ht/api/v1/getClonedVoicesGETReturns list of cloned voices for the account
article_statushttps://play.ht/api/v1/articleStatusGETmetadata.outputPoll conversion status using transcriptionId query param
list_prebuilt_voiceshttps://docs.play.ht/reference/list-of-prebuilt-voicesGETPrebuilt voice references (doc‑driven list)
stream_ttshttps://api.play.ht/api/v2/tts/streamPOSTaudio streamHTTP streaming endpoint for low‑latency TTS (requires headers)
converthttps://play.ht/api/v1/convertPOSTtranscriptionIdCreate text→speech job (returns transcriptionId)

How do I authenticate with the Play.ht API?

Play.ht uses an API key (Authorization header) together with a X‑USER‑ID header containing your Play.ht user ID. Include Content-Type as application/json when sending JSON.

1. Get your credentials

  1. Sign in to your Play.ht account.
  2. Open Dashboard → API Access (or go to https://play.ht/studio/api-access).
  3. Create/generate an API Key; copy the API Key and your User ID shown there.
  4. Use the API Key in the Authorization header and the User ID in the X‑USER‑ID header.

2. Add them to .dlt/secrets.toml

[sources.play_ht_source] api_key = "your_api_key_here" user_id = "your_user_id_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 Play.ht 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 play_ht_pipeline.py

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

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

Inspect your pipeline and data:

dlt pipeline play_ht_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 get_voices and article_status from the Play.ht 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 play_ht_source(api_key (and user_id)=dlt.secrets.value): config: RESTAPIConfig = { "client": { "base_url": "https://api.play.ht (v2) and https://play.ht/api/v1 (v1)", "auth": { "type": "api_key", "api_key": api_key (and user_id), }, }, "resources": [ {"name": "get_voices", "endpoint": {"path": "api/v1/getVoices"}}, {"name": "article_status", "endpoint": {"path": "api/v1/articleStatus"}} ], } yield from rest_api_resources(config) def get_data() -> None: pipeline = dlt.pipeline( pipeline_name="play_ht_pipeline", destination="duckdb", dataset_name="play_ht_data", ) load_info = pipeline.run(play_ht_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("play_ht_pipeline").dataset() sessions_df = data.get_voices.df() print(sessions_df.head())

SQL (DuckDB example):

SELECT * FROM play_ht_data.get_voices LIMIT 10;

In a marimo or Jupyter notebook:

import dlt data = dlt.pipeline("play_ht_pipeline").dataset() data.get_voices.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 Play.ht 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 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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