airtable

Airtable REST API SOP

Read, create, update, and delete Airtable records. Covers auth, filtering, pagination, batch operations, and field type reference.

When to Use

• User wants to read records from an Airtable base
• User wants to create or update Airtable records
• User wants to filter or sort records by field values
• User wants to automate data entry or sync into Airtable
• User wants to delete or patch records in bulk

---

Part 1 — Auth Setup

1. Get a Personal Access Token

1. Go to https://airtable.com/create/tokens
2. Click Create new token
3. Name it, add scopes: data.records:read, data.records:write, schema.bases:read
4. Add bases or grant access to all bases
5. Copy the token (shown only once)

export AIRTABLE_TOKEN="patXXXXXXXXXXXXXX.XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX"

Or store in ~/.cowrangler/credentials.env:

AIRTABLE_TOKEN=patXXXXXXXXXXXXXX.XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

2. Find Your Base and Table IDs

Base ID is in the URL: https://airtable.com/appXXXXXXXXXXXXXX/... → appXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Table ID or name — use the table name directly in the URL (URL-encoded) or get the ID from the metadata API:

AIRTABLE_TOKEN="${AIRTABLE_TOKEN:-$(grep '^AIRTABLE_TOKEN=' ~/.cowrangler/credentials.env 2>/dev/null | cut -d= -f2 | tr -d '\n\r')}"
BASE_ID="appXXXXXXXXXXXXXX"

# List all tables in a base
curl -s "https://api.airtable.com/v0/meta/bases/$BASE_ID/tables" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $AIRTABLE_TOKEN" \
  | python3 -c "
import sys, json
data = json.load(sys.stdin)
for t in data['tables']:
    print(f\"{t['id']}  {t['name']}\")
"

Shell Helper

airtable_get() {
  # Usage: airtable_get "appXXX/TableName?filterByFormula=..."
  curl -s "https://api.airtable.com/v0/$1" \
    -H "Authorization: Bearer $AIRTABLE_TOKEN"
}

airtable_post() {
  # Usage: airtable_post "appXXX/TableName" '{"records":[...]}'
  curl -s -X POST "https://api.airtable.com/v0/$1" \
    -H "Authorization: Bearer $AIRTABLE_TOKEN" \
    -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
    -d "$2"
}

airtable_patch() {
  # Usage: airtable_patch "appXXX/TableName" '{"records":[...]}'
  curl -s -X PATCH "https://api.airtable.com/v0/$1" \
    -H "Authorization: Bearer $AIRTABLE_TOKEN" \
    -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
    -d "$2"
}