SAP ECC Python API Docs | dltHub
Build a SAP ECC-to-database pipeline in Python using dlt with AI harness support for Claude Code, Cursor, and Codex.
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SAP ECC exposes business functionality as REST-based OData services via the SAP NetWeaver Gateway component or custom ICF nodes. The REST API base URL is The base URL is system-specific and depends on the configured ICF node path, typically following the pattern: https://<host>:<port>/sap/opu/odata/sap/<service_name>/ and supports Basic Authentication and OAuth 2.0, with CSRF protection for write operations.
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 SAP ECC data in under 10 minutes.
What data can I load from SAP ECC?
Here are some of the endpoints you can load from SAP ECC:
| Resource | Endpoint | Method | Data selector | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| service_document | /sap/opu/odata/sap/<service_name>/ | GET | Root document listing available entity sets | |
| entity_set | /sap/opu/odata/sap/<service_name>/ | GET | d.results | Retrieve collection of entities |
| entity_metadata | /sap/opu/odata/sap/<service_name>/$metadata | GET | Service metadata definition | |
| entity_count | /sap/opu/odata/sap/<service_name>//$count | GET | Returns total count of entities | |
| entity_single | /sap/opu/odata/sap/<service_name>/() | GET | d | Retrieve a single entity by key |
How do I authenticate with the SAP ECC API?
Authentication is typically handled via Basic Authentication (username/password) or OAuth 2.0. For OData services, a CSRF token is often required for state-changing operations (POST/PUT/DELETE), which must be fetched via a GET request with the header 'X-CSRF-Token: Fetch'.
1. Get your credentials
To obtain API credentials in SAP API Management (the standard way to expose ECC/S4 HANA via REST), follow these steps: 1. Navigate to the Integration Suite dashboard. 2. Go to the Developer Hub (or API Business Hub Enterprise). 3. Create a new Application (or select an existing one) within your workspace. 4. Subscribe the application to an API Product containing the desired APIs. 5. Once subscribed, the dashboard will generate an Application Key (API Key), which serves as your credential for accessing the managed API endpoint.
2. Add them to .dlt/secrets.toml
[sources.sap_ecc_source] apikey = "your_api_key_value" client_id = "your_client_id" client_secret = "your_client_secret" token_url = "https://your-tenant.authentication.sap.hana.ondemand.com/oauth/token"
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 SAP ECC 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 sap_ecc_pipeline.py
If everything is configured correctly, you'll see output like this:
Pipeline sap_ecc_pipeline load step completed in 0.26 seconds 1 load package(s) were loaded to destination duckdb and into dataset sap_ecc_data The duckdb destination used duckdb:/sap_ecc.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 proxies and products from the SAP ECC 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 sap_ecc_source(username_password=dlt.secrets.value): config: RESTAPIConfig = { "client": { "base_url": "The base URL is system-specific and depends on the configured ICF node path, typically following the pattern: https://<host>:<port>/sap/opu/odata/sap/<service_name>/", "auth": {"type": "http_basic", "username": "REPLACE_ME", "password": username_password}, }, "resources": [ {"name": "entity_set", "endpoint": {"path": "<service_name>/<EntitySet>", "data_selector": "d.results"}}, {"name": "entity_set_paginated", "endpoint": {"path": "<service_name>/<EntitySet>?$top=<limit>&$skip=<offset>", "data_selector": "d.results"}} ], } yield from rest_api_resources(config) def get_data() -> None: pipeline = dlt.pipeline( pipeline_name="sap_ecc_pipeline", destination="duckdb", dataset_name="sap_ecc_data", ) load_info = pipeline.run(sap_ecc_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("sap_ecc_pipeline").dataset() sessions_df = data.entity_set.df() print(sessions_df.head())
SQL (DuckDB example):
SELECT * FROM sap_ecc_data.entity_set LIMIT 10;
In a marimo or Jupyter notebook:
import dlt data = dlt.pipeline("sap_ecc_pipeline").dataset() data.entity_set.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 SAP ECC 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 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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