Steamworks Python API Docs | dltHub

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

Last updated:

Steamworks API provides tools for managing and operating games on Steam, including user information, game servers, and inventory services. The Web API allows HTTP-based access to Steam features. Use the partner-only Web API server for secure requests. The REST API base URL is https://api.steampowered.com and All protected requests require a Web API key passed as a query parameter..

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 Steamworks data in under 10 minutes.


What data can I load from Steamworks?

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

ResourceEndpointMethodData selectorDescription
steam_newsISteamNews/GetNewsForApp/v2GETappnews.newsitemsReturns news items for an app
player_summariesISteamUser/GetPlayerSummaries/v2GETresponse.playersReturns player summary objects for supplied steamids
owned_gamesIPlayerService/GetOwnedGames/v1GETresponse.gamesReturns owned games list for a Steam user
friend_listISteamUser/GetFriendList/v1GETfriendslist.friendsReturns a user's friend list
app_listISteamApps/GetAppList/v2GETapplist.appsReturns list of all Steam apps

How do I authenticate with the Steamworks API?

The Steam Web API authenticates requests using a Web API key supplied as the key query‑string parameter; no special HTTP headers are required.

1. Get your credentials

  1. Sign in to your Steamworks partner account at https://partner.steamgames.com.
  2. Go to the Web API / API Key management section in your dashboard (Web API or account settings).
  3. Generate a new Web API key or copy the existing publisher key.
  4. Store the key securely and include it as the key query‑string parameter in API requests.

2. Add them to .dlt/secrets.toml

[sources.steamworks_source] api_key = "your_web_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:

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 Steamworks 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 steamworks_pipeline.py

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

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

Inspect your pipeline and data:

dlt pipeline steamworks_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 player_summaries and owned_games from the Steamworks 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 steamworks_source(api_key=dlt.secrets.value): config: RESTAPIConfig = { "client": { "base_url": "https://api.steampowered.com", "auth": { "type": "api_key", "api_key": api_key, }, }, "resources": [ {"name": "player_summaries", "endpoint": {"path": "ISteamUser/GetPlayerSummaries/v2", "data_selector": "response.players"}}, {"name": "owned_games", "endpoint": {"path": "IPlayerService/GetOwnedGames/v1", "data_selector": "response.games"}} ], } yield from rest_api_resources(config) def get_data() -> None: pipeline = dlt.pipeline( pipeline_name="steamworks_pipeline", destination="duckdb", dataset_name="steamworks_data", ) load_info = pipeline.run(steamworks_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("steamworks_pipeline").dataset() sessions_df = data.player_summaries.df() print(sessions_df.head())

SQL (DuckDB example):

SELECT * FROM steamworks_data.player_summaries LIMIT 10;

In a marimo or Jupyter notebook:

import dlt data = dlt.pipeline("steamworks_pipeline").dataset() data.player_summaries.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 Steamworks 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 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

Was this page helpful?

Community Hub

Need more dlt context for Steamworks?

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