Airtable MCP server

This MCP server allows interactions with Airtable databases directly through Claude, providing capabilities to view database schemas and perform read/write operations on Airtable records.

Installation

Prerequisites

• An Airtable account with a personal access token
• Claude Desktop application installed

Setup with Claude Desktop

1. Add the following configuration to the "mcpServers" section of your claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "airtable": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "airtable-mcp-server"
      ],
      "env": {
        "AIRTABLE_API_KEY": "pat123.abc123"
      }
    }
  }
}

2. Replace pat123.abc123 with your Airtable personal access token
3. Ensure your token has at minimum these permissions:
   • schema.bases:read
   • data.records:read
   • Add corresponding write permissions if you need to modify data

Available Tools

Database Information

List Bases

Lists all Airtable bases you have access to:

• Returns base ID, name, and permission level
• No input parameters required

List Tables

Lists all tables in a specific base:

Input parameters:
- baseId (string, required): The ID of the Airtable base
- detailLevel (string, optional): The level of detail to return (tableIdentifiersOnly, identifiersOnly, or full)

Describe Table

Gets detailed information about a specific table:

Input parameters:
- baseId (string, required): The ID of the Airtable base
- tableId (string, required): The ID of the table to describe
- detailLevel (string, optional): The level of detail to return

Reading Records

List Records

Lists records from a specified Airtable table:

Input parameters:
- baseId (string, required): The ID of the Airtable base
- tableId (string, required): The ID of the table to query
- maxRecords (number, optional): Maximum number of records to return. Defaults to 100.
- filterByFormula (string, optional): Airtable formula to filter records

Search Records

Searches for records containing specific text:

Input parameters:
- baseId (string, required): The ID of the Airtable base
- tableId (string, required): The ID of the table to query
- searchTerm (string, required): Text to search for in records
- fieldIds (array, optional): Specific field IDs to search in
- maxRecords (number, optional): Maximum number of records to return. Defaults to 100.

Get Record

Retrieves a specific record by ID:

Input parameters:
- baseId (string, required): The ID of the Airtable base
- tableId (string, required): The ID of the table
- recordId (string, required): The ID of the record to retrieve

Writing Records

Create Record

Creates a new record in a table:

Input parameters:
- baseId (string, required): The ID of the Airtable base
- tableId (string, required): The ID of the table
- fields (object, required): The fields and values for the new record

Update Records

Updates one or more records in a table:

Input parameters:
- baseId (string, required): The ID of the Airtable base
- tableId (string, required): The ID of the table
- records (array, required): Array of objects containing record ID and fields to update

Delete Records

Deletes one or more records from a table:

Input parameters:
- baseId (string, required): The ID of the Airtable base
- tableId (string, required): The ID of the table
- recordIds (array, required): Array of record IDs to delete

Table Management

Create Table

Creates a new table in a base:

Input parameters:
- baseId (string, required): The ID of the Airtable base
- name (string, required): Name of the new table
- description (string, optional): Description of the table
- fields (array, required): Array of field definitions (name, type, description, options)

Update Table

Updates a table's name or description:

Input parameters:
- baseId (string, required): The ID of the Airtable base
- tableId (string, required): The ID of the table
- name (string, optional): New name for the table
- description (string, optional): New description for the table

Field Management

Create Field

Creates a new field in a table:

Input parameters:
- baseId (string, required): The ID of the Airtable base
- tableId (string, required): The ID of the table
- name (string, required): Name of the new field
- type (string, required): Type of the field
- description (string, optional): Description of the field
- options (object, optional): Field-specific options

Update Field

Updates a field's name or description:

Input parameters:
- baseId (string, required): The ID of the Airtable base
- tableId (string, required): The ID of the table
- fieldId (string, required): The ID of the field
- name (string, optional): New name for the field
- description (string, optional): New description for the field

Resources

The server provides schema information for Airtable bases and tables through the resource URL:

airtable://<baseId>/<tableId>/schema

This returns JSON schema information including:

• Base ID and table ID
• Table name and description
• Primary field ID
• Field definitions (ID, name, type, description, options)
• View definitions (ID, name, type)

How to install this MCP server

For Claude Code

To add this MCP server to Claude Code, run this command in your terminal:

claude mcp add-json "airtable" '{"command":"npx","args":["-y","airtable-mcp-server"],"env":{"AIRTABLE_API_KEY":"pat123.abc123"}}'

See the official Claude Code MCP documentation for more details.

For Cursor

There are two ways to add an MCP server to Cursor. The most common way is to add the server globally in the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file so that it is available in all of your projects.

If you only need the server in a single project, you can add it to the project instead by creating or adding it to the .cursor/mcp.json file.

Adding an MCP server to Cursor globally

To add a global MCP server go to Cursor Settings > Tools & Integrations and click "New MCP Server".

When you click that button the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file will be opened and you can add your server like this:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "airtable": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "-y",
                "airtable-mcp-server"
            ],
            "env": {
                "AIRTABLE_API_KEY": "pat123.abc123"
            }
        }
    }
}

Adding an MCP server to a project

To add an MCP server to a project you can create a new .cursor/mcp.json file or add it to the existing one. This will look exactly the same as the global MCP server example above.

How to use the MCP server

Once the server is installed, you might need to head back to Settings > MCP and click the refresh button.

The Cursor agent will then be able to see the available tools the added MCP server has available and will call them when it needs to.

You can also explicitly ask the agent to use the tool by mentioning the tool name and describing what the function does.

For Claude Desktop

To add this MCP server to Claude Desktop:

1. Find your configuration file:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
• Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
• Linux: ~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

2. Add this to your configuration file:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "airtable": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "-y",
                "airtable-mcp-server"
            ],
            "env": {
                "AIRTABLE_API_KEY": "pat123.abc123"
            }
        }
    }
}

3. Restart Claude Desktop for the changes to take effect