Segment Python API Docs | dltHub

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

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Segment is a platform that enables you to collect customer data and programmatically manage workspaces, sources, destinations, and more via REST APIs. The REST API base URL is https://api.segmentapis.com and All requests require a Bearer token for authentication..

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 Segment data in under 10 minutes.


What data can I load from Segment?

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

ResourceEndpointMethodData selectorDescription
sources/v1/sourcesGETdataList all sources defined in the workspace
destinations/v1/destinationsGETdataRetrieve all configured destinations
workspace/v1/workspaceGETdataGet workspace metadata
warehouses/v1/warehousesGETdataList all warehouses linked to the workspace
segments/v3/segmentsGETdata.itemsPaginated list of segment definitions

How do I authenticate with the Segment API?

Include an HTTP header Authorization: Bearer <PUBLIC_API_TOKEN> with each request. The token is generated in the Segment dashboard under API Keys.

1. Get your credentials

  1. Log in to your Segment workspace.
  2. Go to Settings → API Keys.
  3. Click Create Token and select Public API.
  4. Copy the generated token; it will be used as the Bearer token in requests.
  5. Store the token securely (e.g., in secrets.toml).

2. Add them to .dlt/secrets.toml

[sources.segment_source] api_key = "your_public_api_token_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 Segment 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 segment_pipeline.py

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

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

Inspect your pipeline and data:

dlt pipeline segment_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 sources and segments from the Segment 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 segment_source(api_key=dlt.secrets.value): config: RESTAPIConfig = { "client": { "base_url": "https://api.segmentapis.com", "auth": { "type": "bearer", "token": api_key, }, }, "resources": [ {"name": "sources", "endpoint": {"path": "v1/sources", "data_selector": "data"}}, {"name": "segments", "endpoint": {"path": "v3/segments", "data_selector": "data.items"}} ], } yield from rest_api_resources(config) def get_data() -> None: pipeline = dlt.pipeline( pipeline_name="segment_pipeline", destination="duckdb", dataset_name="segment_data", ) load_info = pipeline.run(segment_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("segment_pipeline").dataset() sessions_df = data.segments.df() print(sessions_df.head())

SQL (DuckDB example):

SELECT * FROM segment_data.segments LIMIT 10;

In a marimo or Jupyter notebook:

import dlt data = dlt.pipeline("segment_pipeline").dataset() data.segments.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 Segment 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.


Troubleshooting

Authentication Errors

If the Bearer token is missing or incorrect, the API returns a 401 Unauthorized response.

Rate Limits

Segment enforces request rate limits; exceeding them results in a 429 Too Many Requests response with a Retry-After header indicating when to retry.

Pagination

List endpoints use cursor‑based pagination. Include page[size] and page[cursor] query parameters. If page[cursor] is omitted, the first page is returned. Continue fetching using the next cursor provided in the response until it is empty.

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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