Tweepy Python API Docs | dltHub

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

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Tweepy is a Python library for accessing the Twitter API. It supports methods for managing tweets, users, lists, and more. The latest version includes extensive documentation for API usage. The REST API base URL is https://api.twitter.com and All requests require OAuth (Bearer token for app‑only or OAuth1.0a for user context)..

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 Tweepy data in under 10 minutes.


What data can I load from Tweepy?

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

ResourceEndpointMethodData selectorDescription
tweets_search/2/tweets/search/recentGETdataSearch recent Tweets (v2 recent search returns a 'data' array)
tweets_lookup/1.1/statuses/lookup.jsonGETLookup multiple Tweets by ID (v1.1 returns a top‑level array of Tweet objects)
tweets_user_timeline/1.1/statuses/user_timeline.jsonGETUser timeline (v1.1 returns a top‑level array of Tweet objects)
users_by_username/2/users/by/username/:usernameGETdataGet user by username (v2 returns a single object in 'data')
users_followers/2/users/:id/followersGETdataGet followers of a user (v2 returns 'data' array plus 'meta')
users_followers_v1/1.1/followers/list.jsonGETusersGet followers (v1.1 returns a 'users' array)
users_friends_v1/1.1/friends/list.jsonGETusersGet friends (following) list (v1.1 returns a 'users' array)
search_tweets_v1/1.1/search/tweets.jsonGETstatusesSearch Tweets (v1.1 Search API returns a 'statuses' array)
account_verify_credentials/1.1/account/verify_credentials.jsonGETVerify current user credentials (returns a single user object)
application_rate_limit_status/1.1/application/rate_limit_status.jsonGETresourcesGet current rate limits (returns a dict with resource families)

How do I authenticate with the Tweepy API?

Tweepy uses OAuth 2.0 Bearer tokens (Authorization: Bearer ) for app‑only access and OAuth 1.0a user tokens for user‑context; the appropriate handler must be passed when creating the Client or API object.

1. Get your credentials

  1. Log in to developer.twitter.com and create a Project & App. 2) Open the App’s “Keys and tokens” page. 3) Click “Generate” to obtain the API Key & Secret (consumer key/secret) and the Bearer Token. 4) Optionally generate Access Token & Secret for user‑context access. 5) Copy the generated credentials for use in your code or secrets.toml.

2. Add them to .dlt/secrets.toml

[sources.tweepy_source] bearer_token = "your_bearer_token_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 Tweepy 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 tweepy_pipeline.py

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

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

Inspect your pipeline and data:

dlt pipeline tweepy_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 tweets and users from the Tweepy 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 tweepy_source(bearer_token=dlt.secrets.value): config: RESTAPIConfig = { "client": { "base_url": "https://api.twitter.com", "auth": { "type": "bearer", "token": bearer_token, }, }, "resources": [ {"name": "tweets", "endpoint": {"path": "2/tweets/search/recent", "data_selector": "data"}}, {"name": "users", "endpoint": {"path": "2/users/:id/followers", "data_selector": "data"}} ], } yield from rest_api_resources(config) def get_data() -> None: pipeline = dlt.pipeline( pipeline_name="tweepy_pipeline", destination="duckdb", dataset_name="tweepy_data", ) load_info = pipeline.run(tweepy_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("tweepy_pipeline").dataset() sessions_df = data.tweets.df() print(sessions_df.head())

SQL (DuckDB example):

SELECT * FROM tweepy_data.tweets LIMIT 10;

In a marimo or Jupyter notebook:

import dlt data = dlt.pipeline("tweepy_pipeline").dataset() data.tweets.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 Tweepy 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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