TMDB Python API Docs | dltHub

TMDB is a popular database for movies and TV shows providing a REST API for accessing media metadata and user-related account actions. The REST API base URL is https://api.themoviedb.org and all requests require an Authorization Bearer token header or an api_key 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 add "dlt[hub]" and start loading TMDB data in under 10 minutes.

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What data can I load from TMDB?

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

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How do I authenticate with the TMDB API?

The primary authentication method is using an 'API Read Access Token' (Bearer token) sent in the 'Authorization' header as 'Bearer <<access_token>>'. Alternatively, some legacy or specific endpoints support authentication via an 'api_key' query parameter.

1. Get your credentials

1. Sign in to your TMDB account (or create one) at https://www.themoviedb.org/. 2. Navigate to your Account Settings by clicking your profile icon in the top-right corner and selecting Settings. 3. In the left-hand sidebar of the settings page, click on the API link. 4. If you have not yet created an API key, click on the 'Request an API key' link. 5. Fill out the application form with your project details (a personal portfolio or development URL like localhost works for non-commercial projects). 6. Once approved, your API Key (v3) and API Read Access Token (v4) will be displayed on this same API settings page.

2. Add them to .dlt/secrets.toml

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[sources.tmdb_source]
access_token = "REPLACE_ME"

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 init
uv add "dlt[hub]"

1. Install the dlt AI harness:

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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:

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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 TMDB 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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uv run python tmdb_pipeline.py

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

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Pipeline tmdb_pipeline load step completed in 0.26 seconds
1 load package(s) were loaded to destination duckdb and into dataset tmdb_data
The duckdb destination used duckdb:/tmdb.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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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.

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Python pipeline example

This example loads movie and account from the TMDB 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 tmdb_source(access_token=dlt.secrets.value):
    config: RESTAPIConfig = {
        "client": {
            "base_url": "https://api.themoviedb.org",
            "auth": {"type": "bearer", "token": access_token},
        },
        "resources": [
            {"name": "discover_movie", "endpoint": {"path": "3/discover/movie", "data_selector": "results"}},
            {"name": "discover_tv", "endpoint": {"path": "3/discover/tv", "data_selector": "results"}}
        ],
    }
    yield from rest_api_resources(config)


def get_data() -> None:
    pipeline = dlt.pipeline(
        pipeline_name="tmdb_pipeline",
        destination="duckdb",
        dataset_name="tmdb_data",
    )
    load_info = pipeline.run(tmdb_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("tmdb_pipeline").dataset()
sessions_df = data.discover_movie.df()
print(sessions_df.head())

SQL (DuckDB example):

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SELECT * FROM tmdb_data.discover_movie LIMIT 10;

In a marimo or Jupyter notebook:

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import dlt

data = dlt.pipeline("tmdb_pipeline").dataset()
data.discover_movie.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 TMDB 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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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.

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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