Engagementhq Python API Docs | dltHub
Build a Engagementhq-to-database pipeline in Python using dlt with AI Workbench support for Claude Code, Cursor, and Codex.
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EngagementHQ is an online community engagement platform that exposes a REST-based Contribution API for programmatic access to site content. The REST API base URL is Not publicly documented; API calls are made to the individual site’s domain (e.g., https://<your-site>.engagementhq.com). and All requests require HTTP Basic Authentication over HTTPS using an admin user account..
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 Engagementhq data in under 10 minutes.
What data can I load from Engagementhq?
Here are some of the endpoints you can load from Engagementhq:
| No publicly documented GET endpoints are available. Access to the full endpoint list requires an admin login to the site. |
|---|
How do I authenticate with the Engagementhq API?
The API uses HTTP Basic Auth; include the admin username and password in the Authorization header (e.g., Authorization: Basic <base64‑credentials>) over SSL (HTTPS).
1. Get your credentials
- Log in to the target EngagementHQ site as an administrator.
- Navigate to the site settings or user management page to view or create an admin user.
- Note the admin username and password; these will be used for HTTP Basic authentication.
- If you do not have admin access, email support@engagementhq.com requesting API access and the necessary admin credentials.
2. Add them to .dlt/secrets.toml
[sources.engagementhq_source] username = "your_admin_username" password = "your_admin_password"
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.
How do I set up and run the pipeline?
Set up a virtual environment and install dlt:
uv venv && source .venv/bin/activate uv pip install "dlt[workspace]"
1. Install the dlt AI Workbench:
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:
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 Engagementhq 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:
python engagementhq_pipeline.py
If everything is configured correctly, you'll see output like this:
Pipeline engagementhq_pipeline load step completed in 0.26 seconds 1 load package(s) were loaded to destination duckdb and into dataset engagementhq_data The duckdb destination used duckdb:/engagementhq.duckdb location to store data Load package 1749667187.541553 is LOADED and contains no failed jobs
Inspect your pipeline and data:
dlt pipeline engagementhq_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.
Python pipeline example
This example loads from the Engagementhq API into DuckDB. It mirrors the endpoint and data selector configuration from the table above:
import dlt from dlt.sources.rest_api import RESTAPIConfig, rest_api_resources @dlt.source def engagementhq_source(username=dlt.secrets.value): config: RESTAPIConfig = { "client": { "base_url": "Not publicly documented; API calls are made to the individual site’s domain (e.g., https://<your-site>.engagementhq.com).", "auth": { "type": "http_basic", "password": username, }, }, "resources": [ ], } yield from rest_api_resources(config) def get_data() -> None: pipeline = dlt.pipeline( pipeline_name="engagementhq_pipeline", destination="duckdb", dataset_name="engagementhq_data", ) load_info = pipeline.run(engagementhq_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.
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):
import dlt data = dlt.pipeline("engagementhq_pipeline").dataset() sessions_df = data..df() print(sessions_df.head())
SQL (DuckDB example):
SELECT * FROM engagementhq_data. LIMIT 10;
In a marimo or Jupyter notebook:
import dlt data = dlt.pipeline("engagementhq_pipeline").dataset() data..df().head()
See how to explore your data in marimo Notebooks and how to query your data in Python with dataset.
What destinations can I load Engagementhq data to?
dlt supports loading into any of these destinations — only the destination parameter changes:
| Destination | Example value |
|---|---|
| DuckDB (local, default) | "duckdb" |
| PostgreSQL | "postgres" |
| BigQuery | "bigquery" |
| Snowflake | "snowflake" |
| Redshift | "redshift" |
| Databricks | "databricks" |
| Filesystem (S3, GCS, Azure) | "filesystem" |
Change the destination in dlt.pipeline(destination="snowflake") and add credentials in .dlt/secrets.toml. See the full destinations list.
Troubleshooting
Authentication failures
- HTTP 401 Unauthorized – Occurs when the provided admin username or password is incorrect or missing. Verify that the Authorization header uses correct Base64‑encoded credentials and that the account has admin privileges.
Rate limiting
- The documentation does not specify rate limits. If you encounter HTTP 429 responses, implement exponential backoff and retry logic.
Pagination
- No pagination details are publicly documented. If a response contains large result sets, check for typical pagination fields such as
page,per_page, ornextin the JSON payload once you have access to the full API docs.
Ensure that the API key is valid to avoid 401 Unauthorized errors. Also, verify endpoint paths and parameters to avoid 404 Not Found errors.
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.
dlt ai toolkit data-exploration install dlt ai toolkit dlthub-runtime install
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