Whisky Hunter Python API Docs | dltHub

Whisky Hunter is a service that aggregates whisky auction and marketplace data (pricing, valuation, redemption info) into a searchable REST API. The REST API base URL is https://whiskyhunter.net/api/ and No authentication required for public endpoints (no API key or bearer token documented)..

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 Whisky Hunter data in under 10 minutes.

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What data can I load from Whisky Hunter?

Here are some of the endpoints you can load from Whisky Hunter:

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How do I authenticate with the Whisky Hunter API?

Public API pages indicate the API is served without documented authentication; calls can be made directly to endpoints under the base URL using standard HTTPS GET requests.

1. Get your credentials

No credentials required for the documented public endpoints. If private credentials are needed, contact Whisky Hunter via the website contact form: https://whiskyhunter.net/.

2. Add them to .dlt/secrets.toml

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[sources.whisky_hunter_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.

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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 venv && source .venv/bin/activate
uv pip install "dlt[workspace]"

1. Install the dlt AI Workbench:

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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:

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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 Whisky Hunter 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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python whisky_hunter_pipeline.py

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

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Pipeline whisky_hunter_pipeline load step completed in 0.26 seconds
1 load package(s) were loaded to destination duckdb and into dataset whisky_hunter_data
The duckdb destination used duckdb:/whisky_hunter.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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dlt pipeline whisky_hunter_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.

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Python pipeline example

This example loads pricing and valuation from the Whisky Hunter 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 whisky_hunter_source(api_key=dlt.secrets.value):
    config: RESTAPIConfig = {
        "client": {
            "base_url": "https://whiskyhunter.net/api/",
            "auth": {
                "type": "api_key",
                "api_key": api_key,
            },
        },
        "resources": [
            {"name": "pricing", "endpoint": {"path": "pricing"}},
            {"name": "valuation", "endpoint": {"path": "valuation"}}
        ],
    }
    yield from rest_api_resources(config)


def get_data() -> None:
    pipeline = dlt.pipeline(
        pipeline_name="whisky_hunter_pipeline",
        destination="duckdb",
        dataset_name="whisky_hunter_data",
    )
    load_info = pipeline.run(whisky_hunter_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("whisky_hunter_pipeline").dataset()
sessions_df = data.pricing.df()
print(sessions_df.head())

SQL (DuckDB example):

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SELECT * FROM whisky_hunter_data.pricing LIMIT 10;

In a marimo or Jupyter notebook:

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import dlt

data = dlt.pipeline("whisky_hunter_pipeline").dataset()
data.pricing.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 Whisky Hunter 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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Troubleshooting

Authentication failures

The public endpoints do not require credentials; if you receive 401/403 responses, you likely hit a private/partner endpoint. Contact Whisky Hunter support to request API access.

Rate limits and 429 responses

No rate limits are documented publicly. If you encounter HTTP 429 Too Many Requests, implement exponential backoff and contact the provider for rate limit details.

Pagination and data selectors

Some endpoints may return paginated responses with wrapper keys such as 'results', 'data', or 'items'. Always inspect a live response and set dlt's data_selector to the exact JSON key that contains the list of records. If the endpoint returns a top-level array, leave the selector empty.

Ensure that the API key is valid to avoid 401 Unauthorized errors. Also, verify endpoint paths and parameters to avoid 404 Not Found errors.

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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.

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dlt ai toolkit data-exploration install
dlt ai toolkit dlthub-runtime install

• 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