API Source Configuration

Mage supports integrating with any RESTful or file-based API. This allows you to extract data from JSON, CSV, TSV, XLSX responses, with support for pagination, authentication, and schema inference. 📚 Sample public APIs for testing: https://apipheny.io/free-api/

Basic Features (OSS)

Configuration Fields

You must enter the following credentials when configuring this source:

Key	Description	Required or optional
`url`	API URL	Required
`method`	`GET` or `POST`	Optional: `GET` is default
`query`	URL query parameters.	Optional
`payload`	When method is `POST`, this payload is used in the request body.	Optional
`headers`	Request headers.	Optional
`response_parser`	Parse the API response using dot notation. The final result must be an array.	Optional
`columns`	If the final data returned from the API or from the `response_parser` is not a JSON object (e.g. it’s an array of strings or an array of array of strings), then you must define the columns.	Required (conditionally)
`separator`	If the file extension is TSV, XLSX (or CSV with specific separator), then you can define it	Optional: ’,’ is default
`has_header`	If the file extension is TSV, XLSX or CSV, and contains a header, then you can define it as True	Optional: False is default

Mage Pro Features

The following features are available only in Mage Pro and are designed for advanced API integrations at scale:

Advanced Configuration (Mage Pro only)

These configuration parameters give you greater control over how data is fetched, parsed, and validated from APIs—especially useful for large files, custom encodings, or complex schemas.

Key	Description	Default
`encoding`	Specifies the character encoding of the API response, such as `"utf-8"` or `"iso-8859-1"`. Use this to avoid decoding issues with special characters.	`"utf-8"`
`verify`	Whether to verify SSL certificates for HTTPS requests. Disabling this is useful in internal or staging environments with self-signed certs.	`True`
`schema_discovery_sample_rows`	The number of rows to sample when inferring the schema from API responses or files. A higher value improves schema accuracy for inconsistent data.	`100`
`force_all_columns_type`	Forces all columns to be interpreted as a single type: `"string"`, `"integer"`, or `"number"`. Useful for normalizing schema across variable data sources.	None
`infer_schema_when_syncing`	Enables schema inference at the time of sync (rather than preview), which is ideal for streaming or large file responses.	`False`

These options enhance your ability to handle diverse data formats and edge cases in production environments, giving you full control over data ingestion quality and reliability.

Multi-Stream Configuration (Mage Pro only)

Mage Pro supports defining multiple independent API configs using the streams key. Each key in the streams map represents a separate stream and can define its own URL, headers, parser, and pagination settings.

streams:
  users:
    url: https://api.example.com/users
    headers:
      x-api-key: user-key
    response_parser: data.users

  orders:
    url: https://api.example.com/orders
    headers:
      x-api-key: order-key
    response_parser: data.orders

Each stream entry can independently use any configuration field supported in the single-stream format.

Pagination Configuration

To sync paginated API responses, the pagination_config config block supports two types:

"cursor" — follows a token provided in the API response (e.g., next_cursor)
"page" — iterates using a page number or offset (e.g., page=1, page=2, …)

Cursor-Based Pagination

Use when the API returns a next cursor/token in the response body.

Key	Description	Required
`type`	Must be `"cursor"`	Yes
`cursor_param`	Name of the query parameter for the cursor (single cursor only)	Yes*
`cursor_params`	List of query parameter names used for multiple cursors	Yes*
`initial_cursor_value`	Initial value(s) to start pagination. Can be a string, list, or dictionary.	No
`next_cursor_path`	Dot path(s) in response to extract next cursor. String for single, dictionary for multiple cursors.	Yes

*Either cursor_param or cursor_params must be provided. If cursor_params is used, next_cursor_path must be a dictionary mapping each param to its response path.

Example: Single cursor

pagination_config:
  type: cursor
  cursor_param: next
  initial_cursor_value: null
  next_cursor_path: meta.next_cursor

Example: Multiple cursors

pagination_config:
  type: cursor
  cursor_params:
    - start
    - end
  initial_cursor_value:
    start: null
    end: null
  next_cursor_path:
    start: meta.start_cursor
    end: meta.end_cursor

Page-Based Pagination

Use when the API accepts page numbers or offsets and optionally supports a limit parameter.

Key	Description	Required
`type`	`"page"`	✅
`param`	Name of the query parameter that controls page or offset (e.g., `"page"`, `"offset"`)	✅
`initial_value`	Starting value for the page or offset	✅
`increment_by`	Value to increase per request (e.g., `1` for pages, `100` for offset)	✅
`limit_param`	Name of the limit parameter (e.g., `"limit"`, `"per_page"`)	Optional
`limit_value`	Limit value per page	Optional
`stop_condition.type`	When to stop: `"empty"` (no results) or `"max_value"` (based on total pages)	✅
`stop_condition.max_value_path`	(If using `max_value`) Dot-notation path to total pages or count (e.g., `meta.totalPages`)	Required for `max_value`

Example: Page + Total Pages (stop when last page reached)

pagination_config:
  type: page
  param: page
  initial_value: 1
  increment_by: 1
  stop_condition:
    type: max_value
    max_value_path: total_pages

Example: Offset + Limit (stop when response is empty)

pagination_config:
  type: page
  param: offset
  initial_value: 0
  increment_by: 100
  limit_param: limit
  limit_value: 100
  stop_condition:
    type: empty

Other Example Configs

Example GET API 1

url: https://api.plos.org/search
query:
  q: "title:DNA"
headers:
  Content-Type: application/json
response_parser: response.docs[0].author_display
columns:
  - author_display

The response from the above endpoint is:

{
  "response": {
    "numFound": 5669,
    "start": 0,
    "maxScore": 6.7217336,
    "docs": [
      {
        "id": "10.1371/journal.pone.0000290",
        "journal": "PLoS ONE",
        "eissn": "1932-6203",
        "publication_date": "2007-03-14T00:00:00Z",
        "article_type": "Research Article",
        "author_display": [
          "Rayna I. Kraeva",
          "Dragomir B. Krastev",
          "Assen Roguev",
          "Anna Ivanova",
          "Marina N. Nedelcheva-Veleva",
          "Stoyno S. Stoynov"
        ],
        "abstract": [
          "Nucleic acids, due to their structural and chemical properties, can form double-stranded secondary structures that assist the transfer of genetic information and can modulate gene expression. ",
          "However, the nucleotide sequence alone is insufficient in explaining phenomena like intron-exon recognition during RNA processing. This raises the question whether nucleic acids are endowed with other attributes that can contribute to their biological functions. ",
          "In this work, we present a calculation of thermodynamic stability of DNA/DNA and mRNA/DNA duplexes across the genomes of four species in the genus Saccharomyces by nearest-neighbor method. ",
          "The results show that coding regions are more thermodynamically stable than introns, 3′-untranslated regions and intergenic sequences. Furthermore, open reading frames have more stable sense mRNA/DNA duplexes than the potential antisense duplexes, a property that can aid gene discovery. ",
          "The lower stability of the DNA/DNA and mRNA/DNA duplexes of 3′-untranslated regions and the higher stability of genes correlates with increased mRNA level. These results suggest that the thermodynamic stability of DNA/DNA and mRNA/DNA duplexes affects mRNA transcription."
        ],
        "title_display": "Stability of mRNA/DNA and DNA/DNA Duplexes Affects mRNA Transcription",
        "score": 6.7217336
      }
    ]
  }
}

However, with the response_parser value of response.docs[0].author_display, the data that is extracted from the API’s response is:

[
  "Rayna I. Kraeva",
  "Dragomir B. Krastev",
  "Assen Roguev",
  "Anna Ivanova",
  "Marina N. Nedelcheva-Veleva",
  "Stoyno S. Stoynov"
]

Since each item in the final data is not a JSON object, the columns configuration value is required. The final data is converted into a JSON object before being outputted to its destination:

[
  {
    "author_display": "Rayna I. Kraeva"
  },
  {
    "author_display": "Dragomir B. Krastev"
  },
  {
    "author_display": "Assen Roguev"
  },
  {
    "author_display": "Anna Ivanova"
  },
  {
    "author_display": "Marina N. Nedelcheva-Veleva"
  },
  {
    "author_display": "Stoyno S. Stoynov"
  }
]

Example GET API 2

url: https://api.coingecko.com/api/v3/coins/markets
query:
  vs_currency: usd

The response from the above endpoint is:

[
  {
    "id": "bitcoin",
    "symbol": "btc",
    "name": "Bitcoin",
    "image": "https://assets.coingecko.com/coins/images/1/large/bitcoin.png?1547033579",
    "current_price": 17154.23,
    "market_cap": 329331527834,
    "market_cap_rank": 1,
    "fully_diluted_valuation": 359638803581,
    "total_volume": 14339246353,
    "high_24h": 17227.56,
    "low_24h": 17107.75,
    "price_change_24h": 18.57,
    "price_change_percentage_24h": 0.10839,
    "market_cap_change_24h": -425260465.15130615,
    "market_cap_change_percentage_24h": -0.12896,
    "circulating_supply": 19230300.0,
    "total_supply": 21000000.0,
    "max_supply": 21000000.0,
    "ath": 69045,
    "ath_change_percentage": -75.16662,
    "ath_date": "2021-11-10T14:24:11.849Z",
    "atl": 67.81,
    "atl_change_percentage": 25185.95387,
    "atl_date": "2013-07-06T00:00:00.000Z",
    "roi": null,
    "last_updated": "2022-12-11T00:32:01.695Z"
  }
]

Because there is no response_parser, the final data matches the exact response from the API. Since each item in the final data is a JSON object, the columns configuration value isn’t required.

Example POST API

url: https://api.something.com/users
method: POST
payload:
  user:
    first_name: Urza
    power: 10
headers:
  "Content-Type": "application/json"
  token: abc123
response_parser: "user"

Example XLSX or CSV

url: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vTLcLUBAJAWf-8NQSjlbB3E4LR6DWk5QIZC-KtRb1j2CXXcgY6mE6vOJAW8PoJ1BAOgjXYpE4tY1LAD/pub?output=xlsx
method: GET
has_header: True

The response from the above endpoint is:

teste,first_name,second_name,email
1,Sadella,Tythacott,stythacott0@sina.com.cn
2,Melessa,Flaune,mflaune1@si.edu
3,Caroljean,Filipowicz,cfilipowicz2@guardian.co.uk
4,Doll,Wannan,dwannan3@people.com.cn
5,Nancy,Giraudy,ngiraudy4@pagesperso-orange.fr
6,Dominic,Bimson,dbimson5@vinaora.com
7,Kikelia,Bishopp,kbishopp6@cdc.gov
8,Andrus,Pomfrett,apomfrett7@wikipedia.org
9,Wildon,Fillingham,wfillingham8@google.co.uk
10,Alfonse,Leechman,aleechman9@jalbum.net
11,Phil,Emblem,pemblema@opera.com
12,Eyde,Brewer,ebrewerb@istockphoto.com
....

Data can also be checked by clicking on the “Load Sample data” button.

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API Source Configuration

Basic Features (OSS)

Configuration Fields

Mage Pro Features

Advanced Configuration (Mage Pro only)

Multi-Stream Configuration (Mage Pro only)

Other Example Configs

Example GET API 1

Example GET API 2

Example POST API

Example XLSX or CSV

​Basic Features (OSS)

​Configuration Fields

​Mage Pro Features

​Advanced Configuration (Mage Pro only)

​Multi-Stream Configuration (Mage Pro only)

​Pagination Configuration

​Cursor-Based Pagination

​Page-Based Pagination

​Other Example Configs

​Example GET API 1

​Example GET API 2

​Example POST API

​Example XLSX or CSV

Basic Features (OSS)

Configuration Fields

Mage Pro Features

Advanced Configuration (Mage Pro only)

Multi-Stream Configuration (Mage Pro only)

Pagination Configuration

Cursor-Based Pagination

Page-Based Pagination

Other Example Configs

Example GET API 1

Example GET API 2

Example POST API

Example XLSX or CSV