airbyte/docs/connector-development/config-based/low-code-cdk-overview.md

Low-code connector development

Airbyte’s low-code framework enables you to build source connectors for REST APIs by modifying boilerplate YAML files.

:::warning The low-code framework is in alpha, which means it’s still in active development and may include backward-incompatible changes. Share feedback and requests with us on our Slack channel or email us at feedback@airbyte.io :::

What connectors can I build using the low-code framework?

Refer to the REST API documentation for the source you want to build the connector for and answer the following questions:

• Does the REST API documentation show which HTTP method to use to retrieve data, and that the response is a JSON object?
• Do the queries either return data synchronously or trigger a bulk workflow?
• Does the API support any of the following pagination mechanisms:
  • Offset count passed either by query params or request header
  • Page count passed either by query params or request header
  • Cursor field pointing to the URL of the next page of records
• Does the API support any of the following authentication mechanisms:
  • A query param or a HTTP header
  • Basic Auth over HTTPS
  • OAuth 2.0
• Does the API support static schema?
• Does the endpoint have a strict rate limit? Throttling is not supported, but the connector can use exponential backoff to avoid API bans in case it gets rate limited. This can work for APIs with high rate limits, but not for those that have strict limits on a small time-window.
• Are the following features sufficient:

  Feature	Support
  Resource type	Collections Sub-collection
  Sync mode	Full refresh Incremental
  Schema discovery	Static schemas
  Stream slicing	Datetime, lists, parent-resource id
  Record transformation	Field selection Adding fields Removing fields Filtering records
  Error detection	From HTTP status code From error message
  Backoff strategies	Exponential Constant Derived from headers

If the answer to all questions is yes, you can use the low-code framework to build a connector for the source. If not, use the Python CDK.

Prerequisites

• An API key for the source you want to build a connector for
• Python >= 3.9
• Docker
• NodeJS

Overview of the process

To use the low-code framework to build an REST API Source connector:

1. Generate the API key for the source you want to build a connector for
2. Set up the project on your local machine
3. Set up your local development environment
4. Update the connector spec and config​uration
5. Update the connector definition
6. Test the connector
7. Add the connector to the Airbyte platform

For a step-by-step tutorial, refer to the Getting Started tutorial or the video tutorial

Configuring the YAML file

The low-code framework involves editing a boilerplate YAML file. The general structure of the YAML file is as follows:

version: "0.1.0"
definitions:
 <key-value pairs defining objects which will be reused in the YAML connector>
streams:
 <list stream definitions>
check:
 <definition of connection checker>

The following table describes the components of the YAML file:

Component	Description
version	Indicates the framework version
definitions	Describes the objects to be reused in the YAML connector
streams	Lists the streams of the source
check	Describes how to test the connection to the source by trying to read a record from a specified list of streams and failing if no records could be read

:::tip Streams define the schema of the data to sync, as well as how to read it from the underlying API source. A stream generally corresponds to a resource within the API. They are analogous to tables for a relational database source. :::

For each stream, configure the following components:

Component	Sub-component	Description
Name		Name of the stream
Primary key (Optional)		Used to uniquely identify records, enabling deduplication. Can be a string for single primary keys, a list of strings for composite primary keys, or a list of list of strings for composite primary keys consisting of nested fields
Schema		Describes the data to sync
Data retriever		Describes how to retrieve data from the API
	Requester	Describes how to prepare HTTP requests to send to the source API and defines the base URL and path, the request options provider, the HTTP method, authenticator, error handler components
	Pagination	Describes how to navigate through the API's pages
	Record Selector	Describes how to extract records from a HTTP response
	Stream Slicer	Describes how to partition the stream, enabling incremental syncs and checkpointing
Cursor field		Field to use as stream cursor. Can either be a string, or a list of strings if the cursor is a nested field.
Transformations		A set of transformations to be applied on the records read from the source before emitting them to the destination
Checkpoint interval		Defines the interval, in number of records, at which incremental syncs should be checkpointed

For a deep dive into each of the components, refer to Understanding the YAML file

Sample connectors

For examples of production-ready config-based connectors, refer to:

• Greenhouse
• Sendgrid
• Sentry