TinyPNG Python API Docs | dltHub

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

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The TinyPNG API is a RESTful service for compressing images. The Node.js client library is available on GitHub. Use your API key to compress images programmatically. The REST API base URL is https://api.tinify.com and HTTP Basic auth using your TinyPNG/Tinify API key as the password..

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 TinyPNG data in under 10 minutes.


What data can I load from TinyPNG?

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

ResourceEndpointMethodData selectorDescription
shrink/shrinkPOST(response JSON) keys: "input" or "output" (object) – not a listUpload an image (binary or JSON with source.url) to compress; returns 201 Created and JSON describing input/output and a Location header with an output URL.
output_download/output/{id}GET(binary response)Download the compressed image using the Location URL returned by /shrink; returns binary image data and image headers (Image-Width, Image-Height, Content-Type).
output_transform/output/{id}POST(binary response when returning image)Apply convert/transform/resize to the compressed output; POST JSON body (resize/convert/preserve/store) and receive transformed image or a stored Location.
output_store/output/{id}POST(200 OK; Location header)Store the compressed image to external storage (S3/GCS) by sending a JSON "store" object; returns Location header with the external URL.
validate/shrink (with invalid payload)POSTerror JSON: {"error","message"}Error responses for invalid auth or request format are returned as JSON with "error" and "message" keys.

How do I authenticate with the TinyPNG API?

All requests must use HTTPS and include an Authorization header with HTTP Basic credentials using username "api" and your API key as the password (Authorization: Basic BASE64("api:YOUR_API_KEY")). Many client libraries accept the key directly and handle the header for you.

1. Get your credentials

  1. Go to https://tinify.com/developers (or https://tinypng.com/developers). 2) Register/sign in to your TinyPNG/Tinify account. 3) On the Developers/API page copy the displayed API key. 4) Keep the key secret; use it as the password in HTTP Basic auth (username: "api").

2. Add them to .dlt/secrets.toml

[sources.tinypng_source] 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 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 TinyPNG 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 tinypng_pipeline.py

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

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

Inspect your pipeline and data:

dlt pipeline tinypng_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 shrink and output from the TinyPNG 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 tinypng_source(api_key=dlt.secrets.value): config: RESTAPIConfig = { "client": { "base_url": "https://api.tinify.com", "auth": { "type": "http_basic", "password": api_key, }, }, "resources": [ {"name": "shrink", "endpoint": {"path": "shrink"}}, {"name": "output", "endpoint": {"path": "output/{id}"}} ], } yield from rest_api_resources(config) def get_data() -> None: pipeline = dlt.pipeline( pipeline_name="tinypng_pipeline", destination="duckdb", dataset_name="tinypng_data", ) load_info = pipeline.run(tinypng_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("tinypng_pipeline").dataset() sessions_df = data.shrink.df() print(sessions_df.head())

SQL (DuckDB example):

SELECT * FROM tinypng_data.shrink LIMIT 10;

In a marimo or Jupyter notebook:

import dlt data = dlt.pipeline("tinypng_pipeline").dataset() data.shrink.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 TinyPNG 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

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