Requests Cache Python API Docs | dltHub

Build a Requests Cache-to-database pipeline in Python using dlt with AI Workbench support for Claude Code, Cursor, and Codex.

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The requests-cache library allows caching HTTP requests in Python, with options to control expiration and cache matching. It integrates with the requests library for enhanced performance. The latest version includes features like revalidation and bulk cache deletion. The REST API base URL is `` and no REST authentication – requests-cache is a local Python library, not a network API.

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 Requests Cache data in under 10 minutes.


What data can I load from Requests Cache?

Here are some of the endpoints you can load from Requests Cache:

ResourceEndpointMethodData selectorDescription
requests_cache_libraryn/an/an/arequests-cache is a local Python library (no REST endpoints)

How do I authenticate with the Requests Cache API?

Requests-Cache is used by creating a CachedSession or calling install_cache; it does not require API credentials or HTTP authentication headers because it is not a remote service.

1. Get your credentials

Requests-Cache does not use provider‑managed credentials; install the package via pip and configure caching parameters in code (e.g., CachedSession(cache_name='demo_cache', expire_after=360)).

2. Add them to .dlt/secrets.toml

[sources.requests_cache_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.


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 Requests Cache 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 requests_cache_pipeline.py

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

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

Inspect your pipeline and data:

dlt pipeline requests_cache_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 n/a and n/a from the Requests Cache 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 requests_cache_source(=dlt.secrets.value): config: RESTAPIConfig = { "client": { "base_url": "", "auth": { "type": "", "": , }, }, "resources": [ {"name": "cached_responses", "endpoint": {"path": ""}}, {"name": "session_configuration", "endpoint": {"path": ""}} ], } yield from rest_api_resources(config) def get_data() -> None: pipeline = dlt.pipeline( pipeline_name="requests_cache_pipeline", destination="duckdb", dataset_name="requests_cache_data", ) load_info = pipeline.run(requests_cache_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("requests_cache_pipeline").dataset() sessions_df = data.n/a.df() print(sessions_df.head())

SQL (DuckDB example):

SELECT * FROM requests_cache_data.n/a LIMIT 10;

In a marimo or Jupyter notebook:

import dlt data = dlt.pipeline("requests_cache_pipeline").dataset() data.n/a.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 Requests Cache data to?

dlt supports loading into any of these destinations — only the destination parameter changes:

DestinationExample 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.


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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