RSS Python API Docs | dltHub
Build a RSS-to-database pipeline in Python using dlt with AI Workbench support for Claude Code, Cursor, and Codex.
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RSS.app is a RESTful service to create, manage and retrieve RSS feeds and generated feed content (posts). The REST API base URL is https://api.rss.app and All requests require an API key (Bearer token) in the Authorization 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 pip install "dlt[workspace]" and start loading RSS data in under 10 minutes.
What data can I load from RSS?
Here are some of the endpoints you can load from RSS:
| Resource | Endpoint | Method | Data selector | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| feeds | /v1/feeds | GET | data | List all feeds in the account (paginated) |
| feed | /v1/feeds/:id | GET | Retrieve a single feed and its posts | |
| bundles | /v1/bundles | GET | data | List bundles (paginated) |
| bundle | /v1/bundles/:bundle_id | GET | Retrieve a single bundle | |
| feed_settings | /v1/feeds/:feed_id/settings | GET | Retrieve feed settings |
How do I authenticate with the RSS API?
RSS.app uses API keys presented as a Bearer token in the Authorization header (Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY[:YOUR_API_SECRET]). All requests must use HTTPS and include the Authorization header.
1. Get your credentials
- Log in to the RSS.app dashboard. 2) Navigate to API / Developer or Account → API Keys. 3) Create/generate a new API key (and secret if provided). 4) Copy the key (and secret) and store securely; use in the Authorization header.
2. Add them to .dlt/secrets.toml
[sources.rss_data_source] api_key = "your_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 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 RSS 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 rss_data_pipeline.py
If everything is configured correctly, you'll see output like this:
Pipeline rss_data_pipeline load step completed in 0.26 seconds 1 load package(s) were loaded to destination duckdb and into dataset rss_data_data The duckdb destination used duckdb:/rss_data.duckdb location to store data Load package 1749667187.541553 is LOADED and contains no failed jobs
Inspect your pipeline and data:
dlt pipeline rss_data_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 feeds and bundles from the RSS 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 rss_data_source(api_key=dlt.secrets.value): config: RESTAPIConfig = { "client": { "base_url": "https://api.rss.app", "auth": { "type": "bearer", "token": api_key, }, }, "resources": [ {"name": "feeds", "endpoint": {"path": "v1/feeds", "data_selector": "data"}}, {"name": "bundles", "endpoint": {"path": "v1/bundles", "data_selector": "data"}} ], } yield from rest_api_resources(config) def get_data() -> None: pipeline = dlt.pipeline( pipeline_name="rss_data_pipeline", destination="duckdb", dataset_name="rss_data_data", ) load_info = pipeline.run(rss_data_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("rss_data_pipeline").dataset() sessions_df = data.feeds.df() print(sessions_df.head())
SQL (DuckDB example):
SELECT * FROM rss_data_data.feeds LIMIT 10;
In a marimo or Jupyter notebook:
import dlt data = dlt.pipeline("rss_data_pipeline").dataset() data.feeds.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 RSS 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.
Troubleshooting
Authentication failures
Ensure the Authorization header is set to Bearer YOUR_API_KEY[:YOUR_API_SECRET]. A 401 response indicates a missing or invalid API key.
Rate limiting / Too Many Requests (429)
RSS.app returns a 429 status when request limits are exceeded. Implement exponential backoff and retry after the Retry-After header.
Pagination quirks
RSS.app uses offset and limit query parameters. The response includes total, offset, limit and a data array. Default limit is 10, max 100.
Common API errors
- 400 Bad Request – malformed request
- 401 Unauthorized – invalid or missing API key
- 403 Forbidden – insufficient permissions
- 404 Not Found – endpoint or resource does not exist
- 409 Conflict – resource state conflict
- 429 Too Many Requests – rate limit exceeded
- 5xx Server Errors – temporary server issues
Ensure that the API key is valid to avoid 401 Unauthorized errors. Also, verify endpoint paths and parameters to avoid 404 Not Found errors.
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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