Refersion Python API Docs | dltHub

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

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Refersion is an affiliate marketing platform and API for managing affiliates, conversions, and commissions. The REST API base URL is https://api.refersion.com/v2 and all requests require Refersion-Public-Key and Refersion-Secret-Key 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 add "dlt[hub]" and start loading Refersion data in under 10 minutes.


What data can I load from Refersion?

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

ResourceEndpointMethodData selectorDescription
affiliate_listaffiliate/listPOSTList all affiliates in account
affiliate_getaffiliate/getPOSTGet information about an affiliate by id or code
affiliate_newaffiliate/newPOSTCreate a new affiliate
search_affiliatesaffiliate/searchPOSTSearch for affiliates by keyword or name
conversion_listconversions/listPOSTconversionsList all conversions
conversion_manual_creditconversion/manual_creditPOSTManually credit an affiliate
conversion_status_changeconversion/status_changePOSTManually change status of a conversion

How do I authenticate with the Refersion API?

Authentication requires two custom HTTP headers: Refersion-Public-Key and Refersion-Secret-Key, which are generated in the Refersion account settings.

1. Get your credentials

To obtain your Refersion REST API credentials: 1. Log in to your Refersion merchant account. 2. Navigate to 'Account' in the top menu, then select 'Settings'. 3. Scroll down and locate the 'Refersion API' or 'Integrations' section. 4. If an API key pair is not already listed, click 'Generate New Key'. 5. You will see both a Public Key and a Secret Key; click 'Show' next to the Secret Key to reveal it. Copy both values for your integration.

2. Add them to .dlt/secrets.toml

[sources.refersion_source] api_public_key = "your_public_key_here" api_secret_key = "your_secret_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 Refersion 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 refersion_pipeline.py

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

Pipeline refersion_pipeline load step completed in 0.26 seconds 1 load package(s) were loaded to destination duckdb and into dataset refersion_data The duckdb destination used duckdb:/refersion.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 /affiliate/list and /affiliate/get from the Refersion 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 refersion_source(api_key=dlt.secrets.value): config: RESTAPIConfig = { "client": { "base_url": "https://api.refersion.com/v2", "auth": {"type": "api_key", "api_key": api_key}, }, "resources": [ {"name": "affiliate_list", "endpoint": {"path": "affiliate/list", "data_selector": "affiliates"}}, {"name": "conversion_list", "endpoint": {"path": "conversions/list", "data_selector": "conversions"}} ], } yield from rest_api_resources(config) def get_data() -> None: pipeline = dlt.pipeline( pipeline_name="refersion_pipeline", destination="duckdb", dataset_name="refersion_data", ) load_info = pipeline.run(refersion_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("refersion_pipeline").dataset() sessions_df = data.affiliate_list.df() print(sessions_df.head())

SQL (DuckDB example):

SELECT * FROM refersion_data.affiliate_list LIMIT 10;

In a marimo or Jupyter notebook:

import dlt data = dlt.pipeline("refersion_pipeline").dataset() data.affiliate_list.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 Refersion 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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