Sesame HR Python API Docs | dltHub

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

Last updated:

Sesame HR is a human resources management platform providing an API to sync data such as employees, time tracking, absences, and schedules. The REST API base URL is https://api-{region}.sesametime.com and all requests require a 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 Sesame HR data in under 10 minutes.


What data can I load from Sesame HR?

Here are some of the endpoints you can load from Sesame HR:

ResourceEndpointMethodData selectorDescription
employeescore/v3/employeesGETdataList employees
documentscore/v3/documentsGETdataList documents
expensescore/v3/expensesGETdataList expenses
job_chargescore/v3/job-chargesGETdataList job charges
vacationscore/v3/vacation-day-off-requestsGETdataList vacation requests

How do I authenticate with the Sesame HR API?

All API requests must include the 'Authorization' header with the value 'Bearer YOUR_API_TOKEN'. The token is generated via the Sesame HR admin panel (Settings > Integrations > API).

1. Get your credentials

To obtain your Sesame HR API credentials, follow these steps: 1. Log in to your Sesame HR administrator account at app.sesametime.com. 2. Navigate to the Configuration or Settings menu (gear icon). 3. Go to the Integrations tab. 4. Select the API section. 5. Click the button to Create New Token (or Create API Token). 6. Copy the generated API token immediately, as it may not be visible again. Note that you may also need to identify your specific region (e.g., eu1) to determine your base API URL (https://api-{region}.sesametime.com). Access to the API is provided via an Add-on, so ensure it is activated for your account.

2. Add them to .dlt/secrets.toml

[sources.sesame_hr_source] api_key = "REPLACE_ME"

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 harness:

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:

dlthub 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 Sesame HR 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 sesame_hr_pipeline.py

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

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

Inspect your pipeline and data:

dlt pipeline sesame_hr_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 /core/v3/info and /core/v3/employees from the Sesame HR 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 sesame_hr_source(api_key=dlt.secrets.value): config: RESTAPIConfig = { "client": { "base_url": "https://api-{region}.sesametime.com", "auth": {"type": "bearer", "token": api_key}, }, "resources": [ {"name": "employees", "endpoint": {"path": "core/v3/employees", "data_selector": "data"}}, {"name": "documents", "endpoint": {"path": "core/v3/documents", "data_selector": "data"}} ], } yield from rest_api_resources(config) def get_data() -> None: pipeline = dlt.pipeline( pipeline_name="sesame_hr_pipeline", destination="duckdb", dataset_name="sesame_hr_data", ) load_info = pipeline.run(sesame_hr_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("sesame_hr_pipeline").dataset() sessions_df = data.employees.df() print(sessions_df.head())

SQL (DuckDB example):

SELECT * FROM sesame_hr_data.employees LIMIT 10;

In a marimo or Jupyter notebook:

import dlt data = dlt.pipeline("sesame_hr_pipeline").dataset() data.employees.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 Sesame HR 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.
dlthub ai toolkit data-exploration install dlthub ai toolkit dlthub-platform install

Was this page helpful?

Community Hub

Need more dlt context for Sesame HR?

Request dlt skills, commands, AGENT.md files, and AI-native context.