Stack Exchange Python API Docs | dltHub

The Stack Exchange API provides access to data from the Stack Exchange network, including questions, answers, users, and tags. The REST API base URL is https://api.stackexchange.com/2.3 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 add "dlt[hub]" and start loading Stack Exchange data in under 10 minutes.

---

What data can I load from Stack Exchange?

Here are some of the endpoints you can load from Stack Exchange:

---

How do I authenticate with the Stack Exchange API?

All API requests must now use the Authorization header with the Bearer scheme. The header should be formatted as 'Authorization: Bearer {KEY or ACCESS TOKEN value}'.

1. Get your credentials

1. Navigate to the Stack Apps website (stackapps.com). 2. Register a new application to gain access to the application dashboard. 3. Within your application's dashboard, locate the section for API keys. 4. Generate or rotate your API key as needed. Note that for security reasons, the full API key is no longer displayed on the page after initial creation, so ensure you store it securely in a password manager or vault immediately upon generation.

2. Add them to .dlt/secrets.toml

Copy
[sources.stack_exchange_source]
api_key = "your_stack_exchange_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:

Copy
uv init
uv add "dlt[hub]"

1. Install the dlt AI harness:

Copy
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:

Copy
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 Stack Exchange 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:

Copy
uv run python stack_exchange_pipeline.py

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

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

Inspect your pipeline and data:

Copy
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 /questions and /search from the Stack Exchange API into DuckDB. It mirrors the endpoint and data selector configuration from the table above:

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

@dlt.source
def stack_exchange_source(api_key_or_access_token=dlt.secrets.value):
    config: RESTAPIConfig = {
        "client": {
            "base_url": "https://api.stackexchange.com/2.3",
            "auth": {"type": "bearer", "token": api_key_or_access_token},
        },
        "resources": [
            {"name": "questions", "endpoint": {"path": "questions", "data_selector": "items"}},
            {"name": "users", "endpoint": {"path": "users", "data_selector": "items"}}
        ],
    }
    yield from rest_api_resources(config)


def get_data() -> None:
    pipeline = dlt.pipeline(
        pipeline_name="stack_exchange_pipeline",
        destination="duckdb",
        dataset_name="stack_exchange_data",
    )
    load_info = pipeline.run(stack_exchange_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):

Copy
import dlt

data = dlt.pipeline("stack_exchange_pipeline").dataset()
sessions_df = data.questions.df()
print(sessions_df.head())

SQL (DuckDB example):

Copy
SELECT * FROM stack_exchange_data.questions LIMIT 10;

In a marimo or Jupyter notebook:

Copy
import dlt

data = dlt.pipeline("stack_exchange_pipeline").dataset()
data.questions.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 Stack Exchange 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.

---

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.

Copy
uv run dlthub ai toolkit install data-exploration
uv run dlthub ai toolkit install dlthub-platform

• 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