Ptv Vic Gov Au Python API Docs | dltHub
Build a Ptv Vic Gov Au-to-database pipeline in Python using dlt with AI Workbench support for Claude Code, Cursor, and Codex.
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The PTV Timetable API provides access to Public Transport Victoria’s public transport data. Redocly generates API documentation from OpenAPI specifications. The Redoc tool is open source and available via npm. The REST API base URL is https://timetableapi.ptv.vic.gov.au and requests require developer id and signature passed as query parameters (devid and signature)..
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 Ptv Vic Gov Au data in under 10 minutes.
What data can I load from Ptv Vic Gov Au?
Here are some of the endpoints you can load from Ptv Vic Gov Au:
| Resource | Endpoint | Method | Data selector | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| departures | v3/departures/route_type/{route_type}/stop/{stop_id} | GET | departures | Timetabled and real‑time service departures for a stop and route type |
| departures_by_route | v3/departures/route_type/{route_type}/stop/{stop_id}/route/{route_id} | GET | departures | Departures for a specific route at a stop |
| directions | v3/directions/route/{route_id} | GET | directions | Directions for a route |
| directions_item | v3/directions/{direction_id} | GET | directions | Direction item details |
| disruptions | v3/disruptions | GET | All disruption information | |
| disruptions_by_route | v3/disruptions/route/{route_id} | GET | disruptions | Disruptions for a route |
| outlets | v3/outlets | GET | outlets | Ticket outlets |
| routes | v3/routes | GET | routes | List of routes |
| route | v3/routes/{route_id} | GET | Route detail | |
| route_types | v3/route_types | GET | route_types | List of route types |
| runs | v3/runs/route/{route_id} | GET | runs | Runs for a route |
| search | v3/search/{search_term} | GET | Search across stops/routes/etc | |
| stops_on_route | v3/stops/route/{route_id}/route_type/{route_type} | GET | stops | Stops for a route |
How do I authenticate with the Ptv Vic Gov Au API?
The API uses a developer id (devid) and an authentication signature passed as query parameters on each request.
1. Get your credentials
- Register for API access via the PTV developer/timetable API pages. 2) After registration you receive a developer ID and developer key. 3) Use the developer key to compute the request signature as described in the PTV documentation. 4) Include
devidandsignatureas query parameters on all API calls.
2. Add them to .dlt/secrets.toml
[sources.ptv_vic_gov_au_source] devid = "your_developer_id_here" api_key = "your_developer_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 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 Ptv Vic Gov Au 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 ptv_vic_gov_au_pipeline.py
If everything is configured correctly, you'll see output like this:
Pipeline ptv_vic_gov_au_pipeline load step completed in 0.26 seconds 1 load package(s) were loaded to destination duckdb and into dataset ptv_vic_gov_au_data The duckdb destination used duckdb:/ptv_vic_gov_au.duckdb location to store data Load package 1749667187.541553 is LOADED and contains no failed jobs
Inspect your pipeline and data:
dlt pipeline ptv_vic_gov_au_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 departures and routes from the Ptv Vic Gov Au 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 ptv_vic_gov_au_source(devid=dlt.secrets.value): config: RESTAPIConfig = { "client": { "base_url": "https://timetableapi.ptv.vic.gov.au", "auth": { "type": "api_key", "api_key": devid, }, }, "resources": [ {"name": "departures", "endpoint": {"path": "v3/departures/route_type/{route_type}/stop/{stop_id}", "data_selector": "departures"}}, {"name": "routes", "endpoint": {"path": "v3/routes", "data_selector": "routes"}} ], } yield from rest_api_resources(config) def get_data() -> None: pipeline = dlt.pipeline( pipeline_name="ptv_vic_gov_au_pipeline", destination="duckdb", dataset_name="ptv_vic_gov_au_data", ) load_info = pipeline.run(ptv_vic_gov_au_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("ptv_vic_gov_au_pipeline").dataset() sessions_df = data.departures.df() print(sessions_df.head())
SQL (DuckDB example):
SELECT * FROM ptv_vic_gov_au_data.departures LIMIT 10;
In a marimo or Jupyter notebook:
import dlt data = dlt.pipeline("ptv_vic_gov_au_pipeline").dataset() data.departures.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 Ptv Vic Gov Au 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 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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