Pirateforms Python API Docs | dltHub

Pirate Forms is a WordPress contact form plugin that provides simple contact form and SMTP features (now retired and migrated to WPForms). The REST API base URL is https://{your-site-domain}/wp-json/pirate-forms/v1 and No centralized authentication; plugin REST routes are site‑local and typically callable from the frontend without 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 pip install "dlt[workspace]" and start loading Pirateforms data in under 10 minutes.

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What data can I load from Pirateforms?

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

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How do I authenticate with the Pirateforms API?

Pirate Forms does not provide a centralized auth mechanism; REST routes can be called without special headers, but admin actions require standard WordPress login.

1. Get your credentials

Not applicable – there are no provider‑issued API credentials. To use admin‑only features, log in to the WordPress site with an administrator account.

2. Add them to .dlt/secrets.toml

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[sources.pirateforms_source]

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

1. Install the dlt AI Workbench:

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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:

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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 Pirateforms 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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python pirateforms_pipeline.py

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

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Pipeline pirateforms_pipeline load step completed in 0.26 seconds
1 load package(s) were loaded to destination duckdb and into dataset pirateforms_data
The duckdb destination used duckdb:/pirateforms.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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dlt pipeline pirateforms_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.

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Python pipeline example

This example loads send_email and entries from the Pirateforms 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 pirateforms_source(none=dlt.secrets.value):
    config: RESTAPIConfig = {
        "client": {
            "base_url": "https://{your-site-domain}/wp-json/pirate-forms/v1",
            "auth": {
                "type": "none",
                "": none,
            },
        },
        "resources": [
            {"name": "send_email", "endpoint": {"path": "wp-json/pirate-forms/v1/send_email"}},
            {"name": "entries", "endpoint": {"path": "wp-json/pirate-forms/v1/entries", "data_selector": "entries"}}
        ],
    }
    yield from rest_api_resources(config)


def get_data() -> None:
    pipeline = dlt.pipeline(
        pipeline_name="pirateforms_pipeline",
        destination="duckdb",
        dataset_name="pirateforms_data",
    )
    load_info = pipeline.run(pirateforms_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("pirateforms_pipeline").dataset()
sessions_df = data.send_email.df()
print(sessions_df.head())

SQL (DuckDB example):

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SELECT * FROM pirateforms_data.send_email LIMIT 10;

In a marimo or Jupyter notebook:

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import dlt

data = dlt.pipeline("pirateforms_pipeline").dataset()
data.send_email.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 Pirateforms 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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Troubleshooting

Authentication / Permission errors

If a request to a Pirate Forms REST route returns 401 or 403, verify that the WordPress site is allowing public access to that route. The plugin’s send_email endpoint is intentionally public, but older versions may require a valid WordPress nonce or logged‑in session.

Missing GET endpoints / data access

Pirate Forms does not expose a documented GET endpoint for retrieving submissions. To obtain historical data, use the plugin’s CSV export in the WordPress admin or migrate to WPForms, which provides its own export tools.

Security / rate limits

The plugin does not implement rate‑limiting. Site owners should protect the endpoint with WordPress nonces, CORS restrictions, or disable the REST route if not needed. Consider migrating to WPForms for a maintained API with clearer rate‑limit policies.

Ensure that the API key is valid to avoid 401 Unauthorized errors. Also, verify endpoint paths and parameters to avoid 404 Not Found errors.

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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.

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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