Looker REST API
Looker's REST API provides programmatic access to run queries, embed dashboards, manage LookML models, schedule reports, and administer users — enabling data-driven agents and embedded analytics.
Score Breakdown
⚙ Agent Friendliness
🔒 Security
API credentials inherit Looker user permissions — minimal-privilege API users recommended. Embed secrets for signed URL generation must be stored securely. SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001. Google Cloud security compliance inherited for hosted Looker.
⚡ Reliability
Best When
Your organization already uses Looker for BI and you need agents to query metrics, embed dashboards, or automate content delivery programmatically.
Avoid When
You don't have an existing Looker instance — the cost and complexity of Looker is not justified for API-only use.
Use Cases
- • Running Looker queries programmatically to feed metrics into agent decision workflows
- • Generating and embedding signed Looker dashboard URLs in agent-produced reports
- • Scheduling and managing content delivery from Looker's schedule pipeline
- • Administering Looker users, groups, and permission sets from automated provisioning
- • Extracting Looker Explore results as JSON/CSV for downstream data processing agents
Not For
- • Teams without existing Looker investment — Metabase or Superset are cheaper for new setups
- • Real-time streaming dashboards (Looker is batch/cached BI, not real-time)
- • Raw SQL execution outside of LookML models (use BigQuery or Redshift APIs for that)
Interface
Authentication
Client ID + Client Secret for API auth (effectively OAuth2 client credentials). Access tokens expire in 1 hour. API credentials created per Looker user — each user's API calls inherit their Looker permissions.
Pricing
Looker is a premium BI platform owned by Google Cloud. API access is included with Looker subscription. No separate API pricing.
Agent Metadata
Known Gotchas
- ⚠ Query results are limited by row limits (typically 5000 default) — agents must handle pagination for large datasets
- ⚠ Embed URLs have expiry (typically 5 minutes) — agents must generate fresh embed URLs per request, never cache
- ⚠ Looker caches queries — agents needing fresh data must set cache=false which significantly increases query time
- ⚠ API credentials inherit user permissions — queries will fail silently (empty results) if the API user lacks model access
- ⚠ Async queries require polling for completion — run_query returns immediately; agents must poll for async query status
Alternatives
Full Evaluation Report
Detailed scoring breakdown, competitive positioning, security analysis, and improvement recommendations for Looker REST API.
Scores are editorial opinions as of 2026-03-06.