Workday Python API Docs | dltHub

Workday REST API is a tenant-hosted interface for programmatic access to Workday human capital management data and services. The REST API base URL is https://{TENANT}.workday.com and all requests require a Bearer access token obtained via OAuth 2.0.

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 Workday data in under 10 minutes.

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What data can I load from Workday?

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

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How do I authenticate with the Workday API?

Workday REST APIs use OAuth 2.0; requests must include an Authorization header with a Bearer access token and a Content-Type: application/json header.

1. Get your credentials

1. Log into your Workday instance and search for the 'Create Integration System User' (ISU) task to create a dedicated user for your API integration. Ensure the ISU is exempt from password expiration and session timeouts.\n2. Create an Integration System Security Group and assign the ISU to it. Grant this security group the necessary domain security policies for the REST API resources you intend to access.\n3. Search for 'Register API Client for Integrations' in Workday. \n4. In the registration form, set the Client Name, choose 'Client Credentials' as the Grant Type (preferred for server-to-server pipelines), and select the required API scopes (e.g., 'Integration', 'System').\n5. Save the registration to generate your 'Client ID' and 'Client Secret'. Note that the Client Secret is displayed only once; store it securely in a secrets manager immediately.\n6. Navigate to the 'Manage Integration System Users' task to link the newly created API Client to your ISU to define the security context for API requests.\n7. Retrieve the required endpoint URLs (REST API Endpoint, Token Endpoint, Authorization Endpoint) from the API Client details page in Workday.

2. Add them to .dlt/secrets.toml

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

1. Install the dlt AI harness:

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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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dlthub 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 Workday 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 workday_pipeline.py

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

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Pipeline workday_pipeline load step completed in 0.26 seconds
1 load package(s) were loaded to destination duckdb and into dataset workday_data
The duckdb destination used duckdb:/workday.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 workday_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 token and authorize from the Workday 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 workday_source(access_token=dlt.secrets.value):
    config: RESTAPIConfig = {
        "client": {
            "base_url": "https://{TENANT}.workday.com",
            "auth": {"type": "bearer", "token": access_token},
        },
        "resources": [
            {"name": "workers", "endpoint": {"path": "workers", "data_selector": "data"}},
            {"name": "custom_reports", "endpoint": {"path": "{reportOwner}/{reportName}", "data_selector": "data"}}
        ],
    }
    yield from rest_api_resources(config)


def get_data() -> None:
    pipeline = dlt.pipeline(
        pipeline_name="workday_pipeline",
        destination="duckdb",
        dataset_name="workday_data",
    )
    load_info = pipeline.run(workday_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("workday_pipeline").dataset()
sessions_df = data.workers.df()
print(sessions_df.head())

SQL (DuckDB example):

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SELECT * FROM workday_data.workers LIMIT 10;

In a marimo or Jupyter notebook:

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import dlt

data = dlt.pipeline("workday_pipeline").dataset()
data.workers.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 Workday 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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dlthub ai toolkit data-exploration install
dlthub ai toolkit dlthub-platform 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