Basecamp

Connect & Ingest data from Basecamp

Basecamp is a project management and team collaboration platform by 37signals. The Sling Basecamp connector extracts data from the Basecamp 4 API, supporting projects, people, todos, messages, comments, documents, schedule entries, and kanban cards.

CLI Pro Required: APIs require a CLI Pro token or Platform Plan.

Setup

The following credentials and inputs are accepted:

Secrets:

• client_id (required) -> Your Basecamp OAuth2 client ID

• client_secret (required) -> Your Basecamp OAuth2 client secret

• access_token (required) -> Your OAuth2 access token (obtained via authorization flow)

• refresh_token (required) -> Your OAuth2 refresh token

Inputs:

• account_id (required) -> Your Basecamp account ID (numeric, found in your Basecamp URL)

• anchor_date (optional) -> The starting date for historical data extraction (default: 1 year ago). Format: YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ

Getting Your OAuth2 Credentials

1. Go to 37signals Launchpad Integrations

2. Click "Register another application"

3. Fill in your application details:

   • Name: Your integration name (e.g., "Sling Integration")

   • Company: Your company name

   • Website URL: Your website

   • Redirect URI: http://localhost:8080/callback

4. After creating the app, note the Client ID and Client Secret

5. Use sling conns set with the client credentials — Sling will handle the OAuth2 authorization flow automatically to obtain access and refresh tokens

Using sling conns

Here are examples of setting a connection named BASECAMP. We must provide the type=api property:

sling conns set BASECAMP type=api spec=basecamp \
  secrets='{ client_id: your_client_id, client_secret: your_client_secret }' \
  inputs='{ account_id: "1234567" }'

After setting the connection, test it to trigger the OAuth2 authorization flow:

sling conns test BASECAMP

This will open a browser window for you to authorize the application. The access and refresh tokens will be saved automatically.

Environment Variable

See here to learn more about the .env.sling file.

export BASECAMP='{ type: api, spec: basecamp, secrets: { client_id: "your_client_id", client_secret: "your_client_secret", access_token: "your_access_token", refresh_token: "your_refresh_token" }, inputs: { account_id: "1234567" } }'

Sling Env File YAML

See here to learn more about the sling env.yaml file.

connections:
  BASECAMP:
    type: api
    spec: basecamp
    secrets:
      client_id: "your_client_id"
      client_secret: "your_client_secret"
      access_token: "your_access_token"
      refresh_token: "your_refresh_token"
    inputs:
      account_id: "1234567"

With anchor date for historical data:

connections:
  BASECAMP:
    type: api
    spec: basecamp
    secrets:
      client_id: "your_client_id"
      client_secret: "your_client_secret"
      access_token: "your_access_token"
      refresh_token: "your_refresh_token"
    inputs:
      account_id: "1234567"
      anchor_date: "2023-01-01T00:00:00Z"

Replication

Here's an example replication configuration to sync Basecamp data to a PostgreSQL database:

source: BASECAMP
target: MY_POSTGRES

defaults:
  mode: incremental
  object: basecamp.{stream_name}

streams:
  # sync all endpoints
  '*':

  # Full refresh for core reference data
  projects:
    mode: full-refresh
  people:
    mode: full-refresh

Full refresh example:

source: BASECAMP
target: MY_POSTGRES

defaults:
  mode: full-refresh
  object: basecamp.{stream_name}

streams:
  projects:
  people:
  todos:
  todolists:
  messages:
  comments:
  documents:
  schedule_entries:
  kanban_cards:
  vaults:

Endpoints

Endpoint	Description	Incremental
projects	All projects in the account	No
people	All people visible to the authenticated user	No
todos	All to-do items across all projects	Yes
todolists	All to-do lists across all projects	Yes
messages	All messages across all projects	Yes
comments	All comments across all projects	Yes
documents	All documents across all projects	Yes
uploads	All file uploads across all projects	Yes
schedule_entries	All schedule entries across all projects	Yes
question_answers	All check-in question answers across all projects	Yes
kanban_cards	All kanban board cards across all projects	Yes
vaults	All vaults (folders) across all projects	Yes

To discover available endpoints:

sling conns discover BASECAMP

Rate Limiting

The Basecamp API has the following rate limits:

• 50 requests per 10 seconds per access token

• Responses include 429 Too Many Requests when exceeded

The connector automatically:

• Uses conservative rate limiting (4 requests/second)

• Retries with exponential backoff on 429 responses (up to 5 attempts)

• Retries on 500+ server errors (up to 3 attempts)

Common Use Cases

Sync Project Management Data

source: BASECAMP
target: MY_POSTGRES

defaults:
  mode: incremental
  object: basecamp.{stream_name}

streams:
  projects:
    mode: full-refresh
  todos:
  todolists:
  messages:
  comments:

Sync Kanban and Schedule Data

source: BASECAMP
target: MY_POSTGRES

defaults:
  mode: incremental
  object: basecamp.{stream_name}

streams:
  kanban_cards:
  schedule_entries:

If you are facing issues connecting, please reach out to us at [email protected], on discord or open a Github Issue here.