Workday Python API Docs | dltHub

Workday REST API is a tenant-hosted REST interface for programmatic access to Workday human capital management data and services. The REST API base URL is https://{TENANT}.workday.com and All requests require OAuth 2.0 (Bearer access token) scoped to an Integration System User (ISU)..

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 Workday data in under 10 minutes.

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What data can I load from Workday?

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

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How do I authenticate with the Workday API?

Workday uses OAuth 2.0; include an Authorization: Bearer <access_token> header and a Content-Type: application/json header on each request.

1. Get your credentials

1. In Workday, create an Integration System User (ISU) for API access.
2. Configure an API client (OAuth2) or Integration System → Security settings to enable OAuth 2.0 for the ISU and record the client_id and client_secret.
3. Set up redirect/authorization settings per tenant (or use client‑credentials flow if supported) and request tokens from the tenant OAuth token endpoint.
4. Exchange client credentials for an access token and use that token in the Authorization header.

2. Add them to .dlt/secrets.toml

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[sources.workday_reports_source]
client_id = "your_client_id_here"
client_secret = "your_client_secret_here"
tenant = "your_tenant_id_or_name"

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 Workday 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 workday_reports_pipeline.py

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

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Pipeline workday_reports_pipeline load step completed in 0.26 seconds
1 load package(s) were loaded to destination duckdb and into dataset workday_reports_data
The duckdb destination used duckdb:/workday_reports.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 workday_reports_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 workers and inbox_tasks from the Workday 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 workday_reports_source(client_credentials=dlt.secrets.value):
    config: RESTAPIConfig = {
        "client": {
            "base_url": "https://{TENANT}.workday.com",
            "auth": {
                "type": "bearer",
                "token": client_credentials,
            },
        },
        "resources": [
            {"name": "workers", "endpoint": {"path": "ccx/api/v1/{tenant}/workers"}},
            {"name": "inbox_tasks", "endpoint": {"path": "ccx/api/v1/{tenant}/inbox_tasks", "data_selector": "inbox_tasks"}}
        ],
    }
    yield from rest_api_resources(config)


def get_data() -> None:
    pipeline = dlt.pipeline(
        pipeline_name="workday_reports_pipeline",
        destination="duckdb",
        dataset_name="workday_reports_data",
    )
    load_info = pipeline.run(workday_reports_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("workday_reports_pipeline").dataset()
sessions_df = data.workers.df()
print(sessions_df.head())

SQL (DuckDB example):

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SELECT * FROM workday_reports_data.workers LIMIT 10;

In a marimo or Jupyter notebook:

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import dlt

data = dlt.pipeline("workday_reports_pipeline").dataset()
data.workers.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 Workday 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

Invalid client credentials or misconfigured ISU will return 401 Unauthorized. Ensure OAuth client_id/client_secret match the tenant and the token is sent in Authorization: Bearer <token>.

Rate limiting and throttling

Workday tenants may enforce rate limits per integration; handle 429 responses by backing off and retrying with exponential backoff.

Pagination

Many collection endpoints support limit/offset or paging cursors. Check response headers or returned paging object and iterate until all records are retrieved.

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