Xano Python API Docs | dltHub

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

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Xano is a no‑code backend platform that provides autogenerated REST APIs for database tables and custom logic. The REST API base URL is https://{yourdomain}.xano.io/api:{canonical_id}/ and All requests require a Bearer token for authentication..

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 Xano data in under 10 minutes.


What data can I load from Xano?

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

ResourceEndpointMethodData selectorDescription
merchant/merchantGETdataRetrieves a list of merchant records
users/usersGETdataRetrieves all user records
products/productsGETdataRetrieves product listings
orders/ordersGETdataRetrieves order records
customers/customersGETdataRetrieves customer information

How do I authenticate with the Xano API?

Include an Authorization: Bearer <authToken> header with every request.

1. Get your credentials

  1. Log in to your Xano workspace.
  2. Navigate to Developer API at app.xano.com/api/developer.
  3. Click the Execute button next to the /instances endpoint.
  4. Copy the tokenUrl from the response for the desired instance.
  5. Open the tokenUrl in a browser; the page will display an authToken.
  6. Copy the authToken; this is the credential to use in API requests.

2. Add them to .dlt/secrets.toml

[sources.xano_source] token = "YOUR_AUTH_TOKEN"

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 Xano 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 xano_pipeline.py

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

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

Inspect your pipeline and data:

dlt pipeline xano_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 merchant and users from the Xano 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 xano_source(token=dlt.secrets.value): config: RESTAPIConfig = { "client": { "base_url": "https://{yourdomain}.xano.io/api:{canonical_id}/", "auth": { "type": "bearer", "token": token, }, }, "resources": [ {"name": "merchant", "endpoint": {"path": "merchant", "data_selector": "data"}}, {"name": "users", "endpoint": {"path": "users", "data_selector": "data"}} ], } yield from rest_api_resources(config) def get_data() -> None: pipeline = dlt.pipeline( pipeline_name="xano_pipeline", destination="duckdb", dataset_name="xano_data", ) load_info = pipeline.run(xano_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("xano_pipeline").dataset() sessions_df = data.merchant.df() print(sessions_df.head())

SQL (DuckDB example):

SELECT * FROM xano_data.merchant LIMIT 10;

In a marimo or Jupyter notebook:

import dlt data = dlt.pipeline("xano_pipeline").dataset() data.merchant.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 Xano 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.


Troubleshooting

Authentication failures

If you receive a 401 Unauthorized response, verify that the Authorization: Bearer <authToken> header contains a valid token obtained from the Developer API. Tokens may expire and need to be regenerated.

Rate limiting

Xano may respond with 429 Too Many Requests when the request rate exceeds the allowed threshold. Implement exponential backoff and respect the Retry-After header if present.

Pagination

List endpoints return paginated results. Use the page and pageSize query parameters (e.g., ?page=2&pageSize=50) to retrieve subsequent pages. The response includes totalPages and currentPage fields to guide iteration.

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


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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