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Customizing a connector sync

By default a connector syncs every resource the underlying dlt verified source exposes, with the source’s own default arguments. Two optional fields on a connector let you narrow that down.

resources — pick which resources to sync

Section titled “resources — pick which resources to sync”

For connectors with many endpoints (Salesforce, Freshdesk, HubSpot, …) you often only need a handful. Pass a comma-separated list at dinobase add time:

Terminal window
dinobase add freshdesk --api-key $FD_KEY --domain mycompany \
    --resources tickets,agents,groups,ticket_fields

That writes the list to ~/.dinobase/config.yaml:

connectors:
  freshdesk:
    type: freshdesk
    credentials:
      api_secret_key: "..."
      domain: "mycompany"
    resources: [tickets, agents, groups, ticket_fields]

For an existing connector you can either edit the YAML by hand or override on a single sync:

Terminal window
dinobase sync freshdesk --resources tickets,agents

(--resources on sync is per-run; it doesn’t update the saved config.)

params — extra kwargs for the source factory

Section titled “params — extra kwargs for the source factory”

Some dlt verified sources accept arguments that dinobase doesn’t surface as named CLI flags — for example, Freshdesk’s start_date for time-bounded incremental sync. Use --param KEY=VALUE (repeatable) to forward them:

Terminal window
dinobase add freshdesk --api-key $FD_KEY --domain mycompany \
    --resources tickets \
    --param start_date=2026-03-20T00:00:00Z

Saved as:

connectors:
  freshdesk:
    type: freshdesk
    credentials:
      api_secret_key: "..."
      domain: "mycompany"
    resources: [tickets]
    params:
      start_date: "2026-03-20T00:00:00Z"

The values are passed verbatim to the source factory function as **kwargs. Refer to the dlt-hub/verified-sources repo for the per-source argument list.

Notes & limits

Section titled “Notes & limits”
  • params only applies to dlt verified-source connectors (the default for most SaaS APIs). Connectors backed by a YAML REST config (configs/<name>.yaml in this repo — Intercom, HelpScout, Front, …) ignore --param; edit the YAML directly to change their behaviour.
  • A --param whose key matches a credential field name (e.g. --param api_key=…) is rejected — credentials always win, so user params can’t accidentally clobber auth.
  • Both fields are local-only. Cloud-managed connectors ignore --resources and --param at add time.