--- name: tinybird-0d23501618fd description: >- Build real-time analytics APIs with Tinybird — ingest millions of events and query with SQL over HTTP. Use when someone asks to "build analytics API", "Tinybird", "real-time analytics", "event analytics", "ClickHouse as a service", "usage metering", or "product analytics backend". Covers data ingestion, SQL pipes, API endpoints, and real-time dashboards. license: Apache-2.0 compatibility: "Tinybird account (Free plan works). Tinybird CLI installs with pip; Tinybird Local needs Docker. HTTP API from any language." metadata: author: terminal-skills version: "1.1.0" category: data-ai tags: "analytics, tinybird, real-time, clickhouse, events" --- # Tinybird ## Overview Tinybird is managed ClickHouse with an API layer: you send events over HTTP, write SQL in Pipes, and publish a Pipe as an authenticated HTTP Endpoint that returns JSON, CSV, NDJSON or Parquet. It suits product analytics, usage metering for billing, live dashboards and any aggregation over large append-only event tables. The current product is Tinybird Forward. Projects are files in git (`.datasource`, `.pipe`, `.connection`), built in Tinybird Local or a Cloud Branch with `tb build` and shipped with `tb deploy`. The old Classic commands (`tb auth`, `tb push`, the `tinybird-cli` package) are not the workflow described here. TypeScript (`@tinybirdco/sdk`) and Python (`tinybird-sdk`) SDKs can define the same resources in code; this skill uses datafiles. ## Instructions ### Install and log in ```bash pip install tinybird # installs the Forward CLI as `tb` (5.x) tb --version mkdir product-analytics && cd product-analytics && git init tb init --type cli --dev-mode local --folder tinybird --cicd skip tb login # opens a browser; writes .tinyb (never commit it) ``` Tinybird also publishes an installer script at tinybird.co; read it before running it instead of piping it into a shell. If a Classic `tb` is already on the PATH (`which tb`), remove it or use a separate virtualenv, because both CLIs use the same command name. `tb init` creates `tinybird.config.json`, `.env.local` and the folders `datasources/`, `pipes/`, `endpoints/`, `materializations/`, `copies/`, `sinks/`, `connections/`, `fixtures/`, `tests/`. Without `--cicd skip` it asks about CI/CD templates. `dev_mode` is `local`, `branch` or `manual`. ### Define a Data Source ```text # tinybird/datasources/events.datasource DESCRIPTION > Raw product events sent from the app SCHEMA > `event_id` String `json:$.event_id`, `user_id` String `json:$.user_id`, `event_type` LowCardinality(String) `json:$.event_type`, `properties` String `json:$.properties`, `timestamp` DateTime `json:$.timestamp` ENGINE "MergeTree" ENGINE_PARTITION_KEY "toYYYYMM(timestamp)" ENGINE_SORTING_KEY "event_type, timestamp, user_id" ENGINE_TTL "timestamp + toIntervalDay(400)" TOKEN events_append APPEND ``` Rules that matter: the sorting key decides query speed (put the columns you filter on first); partition monthly or yearly only, because fine-grained partitions slow writes; `TOKEN APPEND` creates a token that can only write to this table. Changing a deployed schema in an incompatible way needs a `FORWARD_QUERY`. ### Ingest events `POST /v0/events?name=events` takes NDJSON (one JSON object per line). Batch several events per request: it is much faster than one request per event. Use the host of your workspace region (`api.tinybird.co` for the default region). ```typescript // src/analytics/track.ts const TINYBIRD_HOST = process.env.TINYBIRD_HOST ?? "https://api.tinybird.co"; const INGEST_TOKEN = process.env.TINYBIRD_INGEST_TOKEN!; // the events_append token type AppEvent = { userId: string; eventType: string; properties?: Record }; export async function trackEvents(events: AppEvent[]) { const now = new Date().toISOString().slice(0, 19).replace("T", " "); // 2026-10-24 17:05:09 const body = events .map((e) => JSON.stringify({ event_id: crypto.randomUUID(), user_id: e.userId, event_type: e.eventType, properties: JSON.stringify(e.properties ?? {}), timestamp: now, }) ) .join("\n"); const res = await fetch(`${TINYBIRD_HOST}/v0/events?name=events`, { method: "POST", headers: { Authorization: `Bearer ${INGEST_TOKEN}` }, body, }); if (!res.ok) throw new Error(`Tinybird ingest failed: ${res.status} ${await res.text()}`); return res.json(); // { successful_rows: 2, quarantined_rows: 0 } } await trackEvents([ { userId: "usr_8f3a21", eventType: "page_view", properties: { page: "/pricing" } }, { userId: "usr_8f3a21", eventType: "button_click", properties: { button: "start-trial" } }, ]); ``` Responses: `202` means accepted but not yet committed; add `&wait=true` for a `200` after the write is acknowledged (slower, use a timeout of 10 seconds or more). `400` and `403` must not be retried; `413` means the body is too big (10 MB on Free, 100 MB on paid plans); `429` means over the default 100 requests per second per Data Source, so back off with `Retry-After`. The API is not idempotent: a retried batch can insert duplicates. Check `quarantined_rows` in the answer: rows that do not match the schema land in the `events_quarantine` table instead of failing the request. ### Pipes that become Endpoints A Pipe is an Endpoint only when it ends with `TYPE endpoint`. Start the SQL block with `%` so the parameters are parsed. ```text # tinybird/endpoints/daily_active_users.pipe TOKEN dashboard_read READ DESCRIPTION > Daily active users for the last N days NODE daily_counts SQL > % SELECT toDate(timestamp) AS date, uniqExact(user_id) AS active_users FROM events WHERE timestamp >= now() - INTERVAL {{ Int32(days, 30) }} DAY GROUP BY date ORDER BY date DESC TYPE endpoint ``` ```text # tinybird/endpoints/user_activity.pipe TOKEN dashboard_read READ NODE activity SQL > % SELECT event_type, count() AS event_count, max(timestamp) AS last_seen FROM events WHERE user_id = {{ String(user_id, required=True) }} AND timestamp >= now() - INTERVAL {{ Int32(days, 7) }} DAY GROUP BY event_type ORDER BY event_count DESC TYPE endpoint ``` Parameters are typed (`String`, `Int32`, `DateTime`, `Date`, `Boolean`, `Array`, `column()` for column names), so values are validated and rendered as safe SQL literals. Never build SQL by string concatenation. Optional filters use `{% if defined(country) %} ... {% end %}`. Query parameters cannot be used in Materialized Views. ### Build, test, deploy ```bash tb local start --daemon # Tinybird Local: needs Docker, serves http://localhost:7181 tb build # validate and create resources in Local (or a branch) tb --local sql "SELECT count() FROM events" tb --cloud deploy --check # dry-run against Cloud tb --cloud deploy # ship to production tb endpoint ls # list endpoints, URLs, tokens ``` `tb dev` rebuilds on every file change. `tb deploy` is what changes production; `tb build` only touches the development environment. ### Query from your app ```typescript // src/analytics/query.ts const READ_TOKEN = process.env.TINYBIRD_READ_TOKEN!; // dashboard_read token export async function getDailyActiveUsers(days = 30) { const res = await fetch(`${TINYBIRD_HOST}/v0/pipes/daily_active_users.json?days=${days}`, { headers: { Authorization: `Bearer ${READ_TOKEN}` }, }); if (!res.ok) throw new Error(`Tinybird query failed: ${res.status}`); return (await res.json()).data as Array<{ date: string; active_users: number }>; } export async function getUserActivity(userId: string, days = 7) { const url = new URL(`${TINYBIRD_HOST}/v0/pipes/user_activity.json`); url.search = new URLSearchParams({ user_id: userId, days: String(days) }).toString(); const res = await fetch(url, { headers: { Authorization: `Bearer ${READ_TOKEN}` } }); return (await res.json()).data; } ``` Change the extension for another format: `.csv`, `.ndjson`, `.parquet`. The JSON answer carries `meta` (column names and types) and `data` (the rows). For a browser calling Endpoints directly, do not ship the static token. Sign a short-lived JWT (HS256, with `workspace_id`, `name`, `exp` and `scopes`) in your backend and pin the tenant with `fixed_params`, for example `{"type": "PIPES:READ", "resource": "usage_by_customer", "fixed_params": {"customer_id": "cus_4821"}}`. ### Pre-aggregate with a Materialized View Aggregations that run on every dashboard load should be computed at ingest time. ```text # tinybird/datasources/daily_events.datasource SCHEMA > `date` Date, `event_type` LowCardinality(String), `events` AggregateFunction(count) ENGINE "AggregatingMergeTree" ENGINE_SORTING_KEY "date, event_type" ``` ```text # tinybird/pipes/daily_events_mv.pipe NODE rollup SQL > SELECT toDate(timestamp) AS date, event_type, countState() AS events FROM events GROUP BY date, event_type TYPE materialized DATASOURCE daily_events ``` An Endpoint then reads `SELECT date, event_type, countMerge(events) AS events FROM daily_events GROUP BY date, event_type`. ## Examples ### Example 1: Product analytics for a SaaS app **User prompt:** "Track page views and button clicks from our Next.js app and show daily active users on an admin dashboard." The agent runs `tb init`, writes `events.datasource` with an `APPEND` token, adds `daily_active_users.pipe` as an Endpoint with a `READ` token, and `tb build` to check it locally. It adds `trackEvents()` to the server code (the ingest token stays in `TINYBIRD_INGEST_TOKEN`), runs `tb --cloud deploy`, and calls `GET /v0/pipes/daily_active_users.json?days=30` from the dashboard backend. The result is `{"data":[{"date":"2026-10-23","active_users":412}, ...]}`. ### Example 2: Usage metering for API billing **User prompt:** "Count API calls per customer per month so we can bill by usage." The agent creates an `api_calls` Data Source sorted by `customer_id, timestamp`, a Materialized View that rolls calls up by `customer_id` and month with `countState()`, and an Endpoint `usage_by_customer` with a `customer_id` parameter and `countMerge()`. The billing job reads the Endpoint with a JWT whose `fixed_params` pin one customer, so a customer id cannot be swapped by the caller. ## Guidelines - **Free plan limits:** 10 GB storage, 0.25 vCPU, 1,000 requests per day per organization, and a hard 429 when the CPU burst is exceeded. It is not "unlimited queries"; check the plan page before promising a dashboard that polls often. - **Tokens:** use one `APPEND` token for ingestion and one `READ` token per Endpoint group, declared with `TOKEN` in the datafiles. Do not use the workspace admin token in application code, and keep `.tinyb` and `.env.local` out of git. - **Test locally first:** `tb build` against Tinybird Local or a branch, then `tb deploy --check`. A schema change that is incompatible with the live table fails the deployment unless the Data Source has a `FORWARD_QUERY`. - **Sorting key and partition key:** choose them for your filters; they cannot be changed later without a migration (`FORWARD_QUERY`). - **Joins:** ClickHouse joins are fine on small dimension tables; for large tables denormalize at ingest or pre-join in a Materialized View. - **Duplicates:** the Events API is not idempotent; deduplicate with `ReplacingMergeTree` or at query time if retries matter. - **Do not use it** as a transactional database: it is built for append-heavy analytics, not row updates. --- Source attribution: terminal-skills Original project: https://github.com/TerminalSkills/skills/blob/8a9852d489f274538be9bf1c9121aeb403750b1c/skills/tinybird/SKILL.md License: Apache-2.0 License information: https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0 Original upstream instructions; downloaded from Mega AI Hub. ## Upstream license notice Apache License Version 2.0, January 2004 http://www.apache.org/licenses/ TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR USE, REPRODUCTION, AND DISTRIBUTION 1. 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See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License. # Mega AI Hub resource metadata Creator / publisher: terminal-skills Original project: https://github.com/TerminalSkills/skills/blob/8a9852d489f274538be9bf1c9121aeb403750b1c/skills/tinybird/SKILL.md Attribution basis: Source repository record Fields of work: Data & Analytics, Marketing, Sales Roles: Data Analyst, Growth Marketer, Product Marketer, Marketing Analyst, Business Development Specialties: API, Database Tools: Tinybird Country applicability: Country not specified Classification basis: Source category, role and specialization labels Instruction SHA-256: e65664e428e0f2e14e0ffe54b8fa49b56f4963d5cedf2d74d8ed360d7bcbbaa4