Load CarAPI data in Python using dltHub

Build a CarAPI-to-database or-dataframe pipeline in Python using dlt with automatic Cursor support.

In this guide, we'll set up a complete CarAPI data pipeline from API credentials to your first data load in just 10 minutes. You'll end up with a fully declarative Python pipeline based on dlt's REST API connector, like in the partial example code below:

Example code
@dlt.source
def carapi_vin_decoder_source(access_token=dlt.secrets.value):
    config: RESTAPIConfig = {
        "client": {
            "base_url": "https://carapi.app/api/",
            "auth": {
                "type": "bearer",
                "token": access_token,
            },
        },
        "resources": [
            account/requests, bodies
        ],
    }
    [...]
    yield from rest_api_resources(config)


def get_data() -> None:
    # Connect to destination
    pipeline = dlt.pipeline(
        pipeline_name='carapi_vin_decoder_pipeline',
        destination='duckdb',
        dataset_name='carapi_vin_decoder_data', 
    )
    # Load the data
    load_info = pipeline.run(carapi_vin_decoder_source())
    print(load_info)

Why use dltHub Workspace with LLM Context to generate Python pipelines?

Accelerate pipeline development with AI-native context
Debug pipelines, validate schemas and data with the integrated Pipeline Dashboard
Build Python notebooks for end users of your data
Low maintenance thanks to Schema evolution with type inference, resilience and self documenting REST API connectors. A shallow learning curve makes the pipeline easy to extend by any team member
dlt is the tool of choice for Pythonic Iceberg Lakehouses, bringing mature data loading to pythonic Iceberg with or without catalogs

What you’ll do

We’ll show you how to generate a readable and easily maintainable Python script that fetches data from carapi_vin_decoder’s API and loads it into Iceberg, DataFrames, files, or a database of your choice. Here are some of the endpoints you can load:

Account Management: Retrieve account requests and daily request statistics
Vehicle Bodies: Access vehicle body type data with standard and v2 versions
Engines: Get engine specification information with standard and v2 versions
Exterior Colors: Browse available vehicle exterior color options with standard and v2 versions
Data Feeds: Download datasets and check last update timestamps

You will then debug the CarAPI pipeline using our Pipeline Dashboard tool to ensure it is copying the data correctly, before building a Notebook to explore your data and build reports.

Setup & steps to follow

💡
Before getting started, let's make sure Cursor is set up correctly:

We suggest using a model like Claude 3.7 Sonnet or better
Index the REST API Source tutorial: https://dlthub.com/docs/dlt-ecosystem/verified-sources/rest_api/ and add it to context as @dlt rest api
Read our full steps on setting up Cursor

Now you're ready to get started!

⚙️ Set up dlt Workspace

Install dlt with duckdb support:
```
pip install dlt[workspace]
```
Initialize a dlt pipeline with CarAPI support.
```
dlt init dlthub:carapi_vin_decoder duckdb
```
The init command will setup the necessary files and folders for the next step.

🤠 Start LLM-assisted coding

Here’s a prompt to get you started:

Prompt
Please generate a REST API Source for CarAPI API, as specified in @carapi_vin_decoder-docs.yaml 
Start with endpoint(s) account/requests and bodies and skip incremental loading for now. 
Place the code in carapi_vin_decoder_pipeline.py and name the pipeline carapi_vin_decoder_pipeline. 
If the file exists, use it as a starting point. 
Do not add or modify any other files. 
Use @dlt rest api as a tutorial. 
After adding the endpoints, allow the user to run the pipeline with python carapi_vin_decoder_pipeline.py and await further instructions.

🔒 Set up credentials

The API uses JWT (JSON Web Token) authentication. Credentials are obtained via the POST /api/auth/login endpoint. The documentation does not specify the exact header name, parameter names, or request/response format for sending or receiving the JWT token.

To get the appropriate API keys, please visit the original source at carapi.app. If you want to protect your environment secrets in a production environment, look into setting up credentials with dlt.

🏃‍♀️ Run the pipeline in the Python terminal in Cursor


python carapi_vin_decoder_pipeline.py

If your pipeline runs correctly, you’ll see something like the following:


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

📈 Debug your pipeline and data with the Pipeline Dashboard

Now that you have a running pipeline, you need to make sure it’s correct, so you do not introduce silent failures like misconfigured pagination or incremental loading errors. By launching the dlt Workspace Pipeline Dashboard, you can see various information about the pipeline to enable you to test it. Here you can see:
- Pipeline overview: State, load metrics
- Data’s schema: tables, columns, types, hints
- You can query the data itself
```
dlt pipeline carapi_vin_decoder_pipeline show 
```
🐍 Build a Notebook with data explorations and reports

With the pipeline and data partially validated, you can continue with custom data explorations and reports. To get started, paste the snippet below into a new marimo Notebook and ask your LLM to go from there. Jupyter Notebooks and regular Python scripts are supported as well.
```
import dlt

data = dlt.pipeline("carapi_vin_decoder_pipeline").dataset()
# get ["account/requests"] table as Pandas frame
data.["account/requests"].df().head()
```

Extra resources:

Learn more with our 1h LLM-assisted coding course!