Zendesk Chat Python API Docs | dltHub

Zendesk Chat REST API allows developers to manage live chat accounts, chats, and other chat-related resources programmatically. The REST API base URL is https://{subdomain}.zendesk.com/api/v2/chat and all requests require a Bearer token.

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 Zendesk Chat data in under 10 minutes.

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What data can I load from Zendesk Chat?

Here are some of the endpoints you can load from Zendesk Chat:

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How do I authenticate with the Zendesk Chat API?

All requests to the Zendesk Chat API must be authenticated by including an OAuth access token in the 'Authorization' header using the Bearer scheme.

1. Get your credentials

Zendesk Chat API (specifically for integrated accounts) requires OAuth 2.0 authentication; Basic Auth is generally not supported for Chat-specific endpoints in modern integrated accounts. To obtain credentials: 1. Navigate to your Zendesk Admin Center. 2. Go to 'Apps and integrations' > 'APIs' > 'Zendesk API'. 3. Ensure OAuth access is enabled. 4. You must create an OAuth client to generate access tokens. This can be done via the Zendesk API (e.g., using POST /api/v2/oauth/clients) or via the admin dashboard if available. 5. For server-to-server data pipelines (like dlt), use the 'Client Credentials' grant flow to obtain an access token, or use the 'Authorization Code' flow for user-interactive scenarios. For testing, you can generate a token manually via a URL redirect or API request as documented in Zendesk's Chat API tutorials.

2. Add them to .dlt/secrets.toml

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[sources.zendesk_chat_source]
subdomain = "your_subdomain"
oauth_access_token = "your_oauth_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.

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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 Zendesk Chat 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 zendesk_chat_pipeline.py

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

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Pipeline zendesk_chat_pipeline load step completed in 0.26 seconds
1 load package(s) were loaded to destination duckdb and into dataset zendesk_chat_data
The duckdb destination used duckdb:/zendesk_chat.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 /api/v2/chat/chats and /api/v2/chat/oauth/tokens from the Zendesk Chat 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 zendesk_chat_source(access_token=dlt.secrets.value):
    config: RESTAPIConfig = {
        "client": {
            "base_url": "https://{subdomain}.zendesk.com/api/v2/chat",
            "auth": {"type": "bearer", "token": access_token},
        },
        "resources": [
            {"name": "chat_incremental_export", "endpoint": {"path": "api/v2/chat/incremental/chats"}},
            {"name": "chats", "endpoint": {"path": "api/v2/chat/chats"}}
        ],
    }
    yield from rest_api_resources(config)


def get_data() -> None:
    pipeline = dlt.pipeline(
        pipeline_name="zendesk_chat_pipeline",
        destination="duckdb",
        dataset_name="zendesk_chat_data",
    )
    load_info = pipeline.run(zendesk_chat_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("zendesk_chat_pipeline").dataset()
sessions_df = data.chat_incremental_export.df()
print(sessions_df.head())

SQL (DuckDB example):

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SELECT * FROM zendesk_chat_data.chat_incremental_export LIMIT 10;

In a marimo or Jupyter notebook:

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import dlt

data = dlt.pipeline("zendesk_chat_pipeline").dataset()
data.chat_incremental_export.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 Zendesk Chat 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