Missive Python API Docs | dltHub

Missive is a collaborative email and team inbox platform that provides a REST API to automate drafts, sync contacts, create posts/messages, and manage conversations and related resources. The REST API base URL is https://public.missiveapp.com/v1 and all requests require a Bearer token for authentication.

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 Missive data in under 10 minutes.

---

What data can I load from Missive?

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

---

How do I authenticate with the Missive API?

Obtain an API token from Missive Preferences → API. Include the token in the Authorization header as: Authorization: Bearer .

1. Get your credentials

1. Open Missive app or web client. 2) Go to Settings / Preferences → API. 3) Click Create a new token. 4) Copy the generated token (starts with missive_pat-...). Note: API tokens require an organization on Productive plan.

2. Add them to .dlt/secrets.toml

Copy
[sources.missive_communications_source]
api_token = "missive_pat-<your_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.

---

How do I set up and run the pipeline?

Set up a virtual environment and install dlt:

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

1. Install the dlt AI Workbench:

Copy
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:

Copy
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 Missive 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:

Copy
python missive_communications_pipeline.py

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

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

Inspect your pipeline and data:

Copy
dlt pipeline missive_communications_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 conversations and messages from the Missive API into DuckDB. It mirrors the endpoint and data selector configuration from the table above:

Copy
import dlt
from dlt.sources.rest_api import RESTAPIConfig, rest_api_resources

@dlt.source
def missive_communications_source(api_token=dlt.secrets.value):
    config: RESTAPIConfig = {
        "client": {
            "base_url": "https://public.missiveapp.com/v1",
            "auth": {
                "type": "bearer",
                "token": api_token,
            },
        },
        "resources": [
            {"name": "conversations", "endpoint": {"path": "conversations", "data_selector": "conversations"}},
            {"name": "messages", "endpoint": {"path": "messages", "data_selector": "messages"}}
        ],
    }
    yield from rest_api_resources(config)


def get_data() -> None:
    pipeline = dlt.pipeline(
        pipeline_name="missive_communications_pipeline",
        destination="duckdb",
        dataset_name="missive_communications_data",
    )
    load_info = pipeline.run(missive_communications_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):

Copy
import dlt

data = dlt.pipeline("missive_communications_pipeline").dataset()
sessions_df = data.conversations.df()
print(sessions_df.head())

SQL (DuckDB example):

Copy
SELECT * FROM missive_communications_data.conversations LIMIT 10;

In a marimo or Jupyter notebook:

Copy
import dlt

data = dlt.pipeline("missive_communications_pipeline").dataset()
data.conversations.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 Missive 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.

---

Troubleshooting

Authentication failures

If you receive 401 Unauthorized, verify the Authorization header is present and formatted as "Authorization: Bearer " and that the token is valid and belongs to an organization on the Productive plan. Tokens often begin with "missive_pat-".

Rate limits and pagination

Endpoints use pagination parameters (limit/offset or until-based for conversations). Conversations use an "until" cursor equal to last_activity_at of the oldest conversation from previous page; a page may return more items than the limit. Use limit (max 50 for conversations, default 25) and until to page backwards.

Common 400 errors

Many list endpoints accept mutually-exclusive filters (e.g., conversations: email, domain, contact_organization). Passing multiple exclusive filters returns 400. Also validate numeric limits (max values) and timestamp formats (Unix epoch seconds).

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.

Copy
dlt ai toolkit data-exploration install
dlt ai toolkit dlthub-runtime 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