Zoho Books Python API Docs | dltHub

Zoho Books is a cloud-based accounting software that provides a REST API for managing financial data including invoices, contacts, and items. The REST API base URL is https://www.zohoapis.com/books/v3 (or v4 depending on the version used, with regional domain suffixes like .eu, .in, .com.au, etc.) and All requests require an OAuth 2.0 access token passed in the Authorization header..

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 Zoho Books data in under 10 minutes.

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What data can I load from Zoho Books?

Here are some of the endpoints you can load from Zoho Books:

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How do I authenticate with the Zoho Books API?

Zoho Books uses OAuth 2.0. Requests must include an Authorization header with the value 'Zoho-oauthtoken <access_token>' for the API to process the request.

1. Get your credentials

1. Navigate to the Zoho Developer Console (https://api-console.zoho.com/) and log in with your Zoho credentials. 2. Click on 'Add Client' and select 'Self Client' to create a new client. 3. Confirm by clicking 'OK' in the pop-up. 4. Navigate to the 'Client Secret' tab to view your Client ID and Client Secret. 5. Go to the 'Generate Code' tab, enter the required scopes (comma-separated), select the time duration for the grant token, and click 'Create' to generate your code. 6. Use the Client ID, Client Secret, and the generated code to perform the POST request to the Zoho Accounts token endpoint to obtain your 'access_token' and 'refresh_token'.

2. Add them to .dlt/secrets.toml

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[sources.zoho_books_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 Zoho Books 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 zoho_books_pipeline.py

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

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Pipeline zoho_books_pipeline load step completed in 0.26 seconds
1 load package(s) were loaded to destination duckdb and into dataset zoho_books_data
The duckdb destination used duckdb:/zoho_books.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 /organizations and /contacts from the Zoho Books 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 zoho_books_source(access_token=dlt.secrets.value):
    config: RESTAPIConfig = {
        "client": {
            "base_url": "https://www.zohoapis.com/books/v3 (or v4 depending on the version used, with regional domain suffixes like .eu, .in, .com.au, etc.)",
            "auth": {"type": "api_key", "api_key": access_token, "name": "Authorization", "location": "header"},
        },
        "resources": [
            {"name": "contacts", "endpoint": {"path": "contacts", "data_selector": "contacts"}},
            {"name": "invoices", "endpoint": {"path": "invoices", "data_selector": "invoices"}}
        ],
    }
    yield from rest_api_resources(config)


def get_data() -> None:
    pipeline = dlt.pipeline(
        pipeline_name="zoho_books_pipeline",
        destination="duckdb",
        dataset_name="zoho_books_data",
    )
    load_info = pipeline.run(zoho_books_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("zoho_books_pipeline").dataset()
sessions_df = data.contacts.df()
print(sessions_df.head())

SQL (DuckDB example):

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SELECT * FROM zoho_books_data.contacts LIMIT 10;

In a marimo or Jupyter notebook:

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import dlt

data = dlt.pipeline("zoho_books_pipeline").dataset()
data.contacts.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 Zoho Books 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