Steamworks Python API Docs | dltHub
Build a Steamworks-to-database pipeline in Python using dlt with AI harness support for Claude Code, Cursor, and Codex.
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Steamworks Web API provides access to various Steamworks features, including public data and protected publisher-only services. The REST API base URL is https://api.steampowered.com/ (public) or https://partner.steam-api.com/ (partner-only) and uses Web API keys provided via parameter or 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 Steamworks data in under 10 minutes.
What data can I load from Steamworks?
Here are some of the endpoints you can load from Steamworks:
| Resource | Endpoint | Method | Data selector | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| published_files | /IPublishedFileService/QueryFiles/v1/ | GET | response | Performs a search query for published files. Uses cursor or page for pagination. |
| app_list | /IStoreService/GetAppList/v1/ | GET | response | Returns a list of all apps on the Steam Store. Uses last_appid for pagination. |
| player_bans | /ISteamUser/GetPlayerBans/v1/ | GET | players | Returns ban status for given Steam IDs. |
| friend_list | /ISteamUser/GetFriendList/v1/ | GET | friendslist | Returns the friend list of a given Steam user. |
| owned_games | /IPlayerService/GetOwnedGames/v1/ | GET | response | Returns a list of games owned by the user. |
How do I authenticate with the Steamworks API?
API keys can be provided either as a 'key' query parameter or by setting the 'x-webapi-key' request header. All Web API requests that contain Web API keys should be made over HTTPS.
1. Get your credentials
To obtain a publisher Web API key, you must have administrator permissions in your Steamworks account. Log in to the Steamworks dashboard and navigate to Users & Permissions, then select Manage Groups. From there, either select an existing group or create a new one, ensure the correct applications are associated with it, and select Create WebAPI Key. Follow the prompts to set desired permissions and save your changes; the key will then appear in the right-hand sidebar. For non-publisher needs, standard user keys can be generated via the Steam Community registration page.
2. Add them to .dlt/secrets.toml
[sources.steamworks_source] steam_api_key = "your_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 init uv add "dlt[hub]"
1. Install the dlt AI harness:
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:
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 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:
uv run 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:
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 api.steampowered.com (public API) and partner.steam-api.com (partner-only secure server) 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(key=dlt.secrets.value): config: RESTAPIConfig = { "client": { "base_url": "https://api.steampowered.com/ (public) or https://partner.steam-api.com/ (partner-only)", "auth": {"type": "api_key", "api_key": key, "name": "x-webapi-key", "location": "header"}, }, "resources": [ {"name": "published_files", "endpoint": {"path": "IPublishedFileService/QueryFiles/v1", "data_selector": "response"}}, {"name": "app_list", "endpoint": {"path": "IStoreService/GetAppList/v1", "data_selector": "response"}} ], } 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.published_files.df() print(sessions_df.head())
SQL (DuckDB example):
SELECT * FROM steamworks_data.published_files LIMIT 10;
In a marimo or Jupyter notebook:
import dlt data = dlt.pipeline("steamworks_pipeline").dataset() data.published_files.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:
| Destination | Example 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.
uv run dlthub ai toolkit install data-exploration uv run dlthub ai toolkit install dlthub-platform
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