ShipStation Python API Docs | dltHub

ShipStation is a shipping software platform that offers a REST API for order and shipment management. The REST API base URL is https://api.shipstation.com and All requests require HTTP Basic authentication with an API Key and Secret..

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 ShipStation data in under 10 minutes.

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What data can I load from ShipStation?

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

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How do I authenticate with the ShipStation API?

ShipStation uses HTTP Basic authentication; provide your API Key as the username and API Secret as the password in the Authorization header.

1. Get your credentials

1. Log in to your ShipStation account.
2. Navigate to Settings → API Settings.
3. Click Generate API Keys (or copy the existing API Key and API Secret).
4. Record the values; the API Key is used as the username and the API Secret as the password for Basic auth.

2. Add them to .dlt/secrets.toml

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[sources.shipstation_source]
api_key = "your_api_key_here"
api_secret = "your_api_secret_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.

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How do I set up and run the pipeline?

Set up a virtual environment and install dlt:

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uv venv && source .venv/bin/activate
uv pip install "dlt[workspace]"

1. Install the dlt AI Workbench:

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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:

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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 ShipStation 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:

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python shipstation_pipeline.py

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

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

Inspect your pipeline and data:

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dlt pipeline shipstation_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.

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Python pipeline example

This example loads shipments and products from the ShipStation API into DuckDB. It mirrors the endpoint and data selector configuration from the table above:

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import dlt
from dlt.sources.rest_api import RESTAPIConfig, rest_api_resources

@dlt.source
def shipstation_source(api_key=dlt.secrets.value):
    config: RESTAPIConfig = {
        "client": {
            "base_url": "https://api.shipstation.com",
            "auth": {
                "type": "http_basic",
                "api_key": api_key,
            },
        },
        "resources": [
            {"name": "shipments", "endpoint": {"path": "v2/shipments", "data_selector": "shipments"}},
            {"name": "products", "endpoint": {"path": "v2/products", "data_selector": "products"}}
        ],
    }
    yield from rest_api_resources(config)


def get_data() -> None:
    pipeline = dlt.pipeline(
        pipeline_name="shipstation_pipeline",
        destination="duckdb",
        dataset_name="shipstation_data",
    )
    load_info = pipeline.run(shipstation_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.

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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):

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import dlt

data = dlt.pipeline("shipstation_pipeline").dataset()
sessions_df = data.shipments.df()
print(sessions_df.head())

SQL (DuckDB example):

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SELECT * FROM shipstation_data.shipments LIMIT 10;

In a marimo or Jupyter notebook:

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import dlt

data = dlt.pipeline("shipstation_pipeline").dataset()
data.shipments.df().head()

See how to explore your data in marimo Notebooks and how to query your data in Python with dataset.

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What destinations can I load ShipStation data to?

dlt supports loading into any of these destinations — only the destination parameter changes:

Change the destination in dlt.pipeline(destination="snowflake") and add credentials in .dlt/secrets.toml. See the full destinations list.

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Troubleshooting

Authentication Errors

If you receive a 401 Unauthorized response, verify that the API Key and API Secret are correct and that they are being sent as HTTP Basic credentials (username = API Key, password = API Secret). Incorrect credentials are the most common cause of auth failures.

TLS / Protocol Errors

All calls must use HTTPS with TLS v1.1 or higher. Attempting to connect over plain HTTP or using an older TLS version will result in connection failures.

Rate Limiting

ShipStation enforces rate limits per account. If you receive a 429 Too Many Requests response, pause your requests and retry after the period indicated in the Retry-After header.

Ensure that the API key is valid to avoid 401 Unauthorized errors. Also, verify endpoint paths and parameters to avoid 404 Not Found errors.

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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.

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dlt ai toolkit data-exploration install
dlt ai toolkit dlthub-runtime install

• How to deploy a pipeline
• How to explore your data in marimo Notebooks
• How to query your data in Python with dataset
• Join the dlt community on Slack