TiDB Python API Docs | dltHub

TiDB Cloud is a fully managed distributed SQL database service with a REST API. The REST API base URL is https://api.tidbcloud.com and All requests use HTTP Digest authentication with a public key and a private key..

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 TiDB data in under 10 minutes.

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What data can I load from TiDB?

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

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How do I authenticate with the TiDB API?

Include the public key as the username and the private key as the password in an HTTP Digest Authorization header for every request.

1. Get your credentials

1. Log in to the TiDB Cloud console.
2. Navigate to Account Settings → API Keys.
3. Click Create API Key.
4. Record the generated Public Key and Private Key; the private key is shown only once.
5. Store both keys securely and use them for HTTP Digest authentication.

2. Add them to .dlt/secrets.toml

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[sources.tidb_instance_source]
public_key = "your_public_key_here"
private_key = "your_private_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 TiDB 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 tidb_instance_pipeline.py

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

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Pipeline tidb_instance_pipeline load step completed in 0.26 seconds
1 load package(s) were loaded to destination duckdb and into dataset tidb_instance_data
The duckdb destination used duckdb:/tidb_instance.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 tidb_instance_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 projects and clusters from the TiDB 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 tidb_instance_source(api_key=dlt.secrets.value):
    config: RESTAPIConfig = {
        "client": {
            "base_url": "https://api.tidbcloud.com",
            "auth": {
                "type": "api_key",
                "api_key": api_key,
            },
        },
        "resources": [
            {"name": "projects", "endpoint": {"path": "api/v1beta/projects", "data_selector": "projects"}},
            {"name": "clusters", "endpoint": {"path": "api/v1beta/clusters", "data_selector": "clusters"}}
        ],
    }
    yield from rest_api_resources(config)


def get_data() -> None:
    pipeline = dlt.pipeline(
        pipeline_name="tidb_instance_pipeline",
        destination="duckdb",
        dataset_name="tidb_instance_data",
    )
    load_info = pipeline.run(tidb_instance_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("tidb_instance_pipeline").dataset()
sessions_df = data.projects.df()
print(sessions_df.head())

SQL (DuckDB example):

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SELECT * FROM tidb_instance_data.projects LIMIT 10;

In a marimo or Jupyter notebook:

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import dlt

data = dlt.pipeline("tidb_instance_pipeline").dataset()
data.projects.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 TiDB 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 Errors

• 401 Unauthorized – Occurs when the public/private key pair is missing or incorrect. Ensure the Digest header includes the correct credentials.

Rate Limiting

• 429 Too Many Requests – The API enforces a limit of 100 requests per minute per API key. The response body includes:

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  {"details":[],"code":49900007,"message":"The request exceeded the limit of 100 times per apikey per minute..."}

• Headers X-Ratelimit-Limit-Minute, X-Ratelimit-Remaining-Minute, and X-Ratelimit-Reset provide the current quota status.

Pagination

• List endpoints return paginated results using page and pageSize query parameters. Continue fetching while the nextPageToken field is present in the response.

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