Retail Express Python API Docs | dltHub

Retail Express is a RESTful API platform that provides access to Retail Express POS and retail management data (products, customers, orders, outlets, inventory, financial summaries) for integrations. The REST API base URL is https://api.retailexpress.com.au and all requests require a short-lived Bearer access token plus the x-api-key header.

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 Retail Express data in under 10 minutes.

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What data can I load from Retail Express?

Here are some of the endpoints you can load from Retail Express:

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How do I authenticate with the Retail Express API?

Authentication uses a client-specific API Key to request a short-lived Bearer access token. First request the token at /{version}/auth/token with header x-api-key; include both Authorization: Bearer and x-api-key: <api_key> on subsequent requests. Tokens expire after 60 minutes.

1. Get your credentials

1. Request an API Key from the Retail Express client (each key is client-specific). 2) In your integration code or dashboard, call POST https://api.retailexpress.com.au/v2/auth/token with header x-api-key: <API_KEY> to receive a Bearer access_token. 3) Use Authorization: Bearer <access_token> and x-api-key: <API_KEY> on subsequent requests. 4) Repeat token request when token expires (60 minutes).

2. Add them to .dlt/secrets.toml

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[sources.retail_express_source]
api_key = "your_client_api_key_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.

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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 Retail Express 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 retail_express_pipeline.py

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

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Pipeline retail_express_pipeline load step completed in 0.26 seconds
1 load package(s) were loaded to destination duckdb and into dataset retail_express_data
The duckdb destination used duckdb:/retail_express.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 retail_express_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 products and orders from the Retail Express 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 retail_express_source(api_key=dlt.secrets.value):
    config: RESTAPIConfig = {
        "client": {
            "base_url": "https://api.retailexpress.com.au",
            "auth": {
                "type": "bearer",
                "token": api_key,
            },
        },
        "resources": [
            {"name": "products", "endpoint": {"path": "v2.1/products", "data_selector": "products"}},
            {"name": "orders", "endpoint": {"path": "v2.1/orders", "data_selector": "orders"}}
        ],
    }
    yield from rest_api_resources(config)


def get_data() -> None:
    pipeline = dlt.pipeline(
        pipeline_name="retail_express_pipeline",
        destination="duckdb",
        dataset_name="retail_express_data",
    )
    load_info = pipeline.run(retail_express_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("retail_express_pipeline").dataset()
sessions_df = data.products.df()
print(sessions_df.head())

SQL (DuckDB example):

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SELECT * FROM retail_express_data.products LIMIT 10;

In a marimo or Jupyter notebook:

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import dlt

data = dlt.pipeline("retail_express_pipeline").dataset()
data.products.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 Retail Express 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 failures

If you receive 401 Unauthorized: ensure the x-api-key header contains the client API Key and that Authorization uses the Bearer token returned from /v2/auth/token. Tokens expire after 60 minutesrequest a new token when expired.

Rate limits

Retail Express enforces per-client limits: 300 requests per minute (avg 5/sec) and 100,000 requests per 24-hour period. If you hit limits you will receive 429 Too Many Requests; back off and retry after a short delay.

Pagination quirks

All GET list endpoints are paginated (default page_size 20, max 250). Responses include page_number, page_size and total_records. Use page_number and page_size query parameters to iterate pages.

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