Airtable User MCP

---

Top Features

Feature	What it does	File types
Formula Editor	Syntax highlighting, IntelliSense, beautify / minify	.formula, .min.formula
Script Editor	Completions, hover docs, diagnostics	.ats, .script
Automation Editor	Completions, hover docs, diagnostics	.ata, .automation
MCP Server (72 tools + manage_tools)	Full Airtable internal API — schema, views, fields, records, extensions, templates	—
Language Server (LSP)	Standalone multi-editor support — Neovim, Zed, Helix, OpenCode	All above
IDE Auto-Setup	One-click MCP config for Cursor, Windsurf, Claude Desktop, Cline, Amp	—
AI Skills	Pre-built Airtable-specific rules and workflows for AI coding assistants	—
Daemon + Tunnel	Persistent background server; optional Cloudflare or ngrok remote access	—
Tool Profiles	read-only (12 tools) / safe-write (54 tools) / full (72 tools) / custom permission scopes	—
OS Keychain Auth	Browser-based Airtable login with SSO/2FA — credentials in your OS keychain	—

---

Why this exists

Airtable's public Web API has never exposed some of the most common tasks builders actually need: creating a formula field, tweaking a view's filter set, installing an extension, or validating a formula before it breaks production. The official Airtable MCP server is a thin wrapper over that same REST API, so it inherits every one of those gaps.

airtable-user-mcp is an add-on to the official Airtable MCP, not a replacement. It uses Airtable's own internal API (the one the web UI uses) to cover exactly the surface area the REST API can't reach. Register both servers in your AI client and your assistant gets the full Airtable automation experience — records over HTTP via the official MCP, plus schema, formulas, views, and extensions via this one.

---

What airtable-user-mcp adds on top of the official Airtable MCP

This is a coverage map, not a "pick one" decision — the two servers are complementary and designed to run side-by-side.

Capability	Official Airtable MCP	airtable-user-mcp
Total tools	~17	73 (72 + manage_tools)
Auth model	Personal Access Token or OAuth, per-scope setup	Log in once with your normal Airtable account (SSO/2FA supported)
Transport	HTTP (remote)	stdio (local, private)
Data never leaves your machine	❌ Requests go through mcp.airtable.com	✅ Runs locally against Airtable's API
Schema read (bases, tables, fields, views)	Partial (no view config)	Full — filters, sorts, groups, visibility, row height, descriptions
Read records with resolved field values	Partial	✅ query_records — returns lookup/rollup/formula fields fully resolved
Search records by text (incl. lookup fields)	❌ filterByFormula with FIND()/SEARCH() silently fails on lookup fields	✅ query_records.search — substring match on all resolved values
Duplicate records	❌	✅ duplicate_records
Create formula fields	❌ UNSUPPORTED_FIELD_TYPE_FOR_CREATE	✅
Create rollup fields	❌	✅
Create lookup / multipleLookupValues fields	❌	✅
Create count fields	❌	✅
Update formula text of an existing field	❌	✅
Validate a formula before applying	❌	✅
Rename / duplicate / safely delete fields	Partial (no duplicate, no dependency summary)	✅ with expectedName guard + dependency preview
Create views (grid/form/kanban/calendar/gallery/gantt/list)	❌ (API has no create-view endpoint)	✅
Set/append view filters (nested AND/OR)	❌	✅
Set view sorts	❌	✅
Set view grouping	❌	✅
Change column order	❌	✅
Show/hide columns in a view	❌	✅
Change row height	❌	✅
Duplicate a view with its full configuration	❌	✅
View descriptions, cell wrap, covers, color config, calendar dates, frozen columns	❌	✅
Sidebar sections (create, rename, move, delete)	❌	✅
Record templates (create, pre-fill, duplicate, apply, delete)	❌	✅
Form metadata (description, redirect, attribution, branding)	❌	✅
Extension / block management (install, enable, rename, duplicate, remove)	❌	✅
Create dashboard pages	❌	✅
Daemon self-diagnosis (session dead? browser busy? daemon gone?)	❌	✅ manage_daemon action=status, plus start / restart / stop / tunnel / token rotation
Tool profiles & per-tool toggles	❌	✅ read-only (12) / safe-write (54) / full (72) / custom
Destructive-action safety guards	Relies on token scopes	✅ expectedName match, dependency summary, force flag
Batch record create limit	10 / request	Uses the same Airtable limit; no added restriction
VS Code / Cursor / Windsurf / Cline / Amp one-click install	Manual JSON edit per IDE	✅ One click via the companion extension
Formula editor with IntelliSense	❌	✅ (VS Code extension)
Credentials storage	You manage the PAT	OS keychain, auto-refresh
Plan requirement	Airtable plan with API access + token scopes	Any plan you can log into
Price	Free	Free, MIT

Sources: Airtable's official MCP docs, Airtable Web API reference, and the UNSUPPORTED_FIELD_TYPE_FOR_CREATE rollup thread.

---

Use both MCPs together

npx -y airtable-user-mcp login          # one-time browser login
claude mcp add airtable --scope user -- npx -y airtable-user-mcp   # Claude Code

airtable-user-mcp is additive. Register the official Airtable MCP following Airtable's setup guide, then add this one alongside it in the same mcpServers block:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "airtable-user-mcp": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "airtable-user-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Your MCP client will expose every tool from both servers. The two entries are independent — rename the keys (airtable, airtable-official, airtable-user-mcp, etc.) however makes sense for your workflow.

---

What's In This Repo

This monorepo ships three products from one source tree:

---

Demo

---

Features

MCP Server (72 Tools + manage_tools)

Manage Airtable bases with capabilities not available through the official REST API:

Category	Tools	Highlights
Schema Read	11	Full schema inspection — bases, tables, fields, views, sidebar sections, record templates; download all formula fields to local files
Record Read	1	query_records — up to 1 000 records/call with resolved field values; search param works on lookup/rollup fields (REST API filterByFormula doesn't)
Record Write	4	create_records / update_records / duplicate_records / upload_attachment (the only way to write multipleAttachments cells by URL)
Record Destructive	1	delete_records — batch-delete records from a table
Table Management	3	create / rename / delete tables
Field Management	9	Create formula / rollup / lookup / count fields, validate formulas, update descriptions, delete single or bulk
View Configuration	20	Filters, sorts, grouping, columns, freezing, row height, covers, color rules, calendar dates, create / duplicate / rename / delete
Sidebar Sections	4	Create, rename, move-into-section, delete (auto-promotes contained views to ungrouped)
Record Templates	8	Create / rename / describe / set cells / set columns / duplicate / apply / delete saved row scaffolds
Form Metadata	2	Description, redirect URL, attribution, copy-to-respondent, branding (legacy form views)
Extension Management	7	Create, install, enable/disable, rename, duplicate, remove extensions
Tool Management	1	List profiles, switch profile, toggle tools/categories (meta-tool, always enabled — not part of any profile)
Base Sync	1	sync_base — copy a base's schema, views, and records to another base. mode=plan/diff/status are read-only; mode=apply mutates the destination and, with policy=mirror plus the confirmation flags, can delete tables, fields, views, sections and records; mode=reconcile updates local mapping state. Drift-guarded and resumable via journal.
Daemon Control	1	manage_daemon — action=status is read-only self-diagnosis: daemon liveness, transport, uptime, tunnel URL, and the live session state (dead session, last breaker trip with Airtable's own response body, browser busy queue) that tells "daemon gone" from "session dead" from "browser busy". Also start / restart / stop / tunnel_enable / tunnel_disable / token_rotate. full profile only.

See the full tool reference in packages/mcp-server/README.md.

One shared daemon

The extension starts the shared MCP daemon whenever a tool call needs one, so every VS Code window uses one Airtable browser session instead of one per window — that duplication is what produced most "session dead" errors. A daemon you stop from the dashboard stays stopped, and if it cannot start, the extension falls back to a per-window server so your tools keep working.

Because a daemon is usually running, other MCP clients on the same machine (Claude Desktop, Cursor, Cline, Amp) attach to it and therefore run under its auth mode and HTTP client rather than their own — deliberately, since two browsers on one Airtable profile crash. Each such client prints one stderr line saying so. See Sharing one daemon across clients.

LSP Server

airtable-user-lsp is a standalone language server for Airtable formula, script, and automation files — works in any LSP-capable editor, not just VS Code.

# stdio mode — works standalone, no daemon needed
npx airtable-user-lsp --stdio

Features: diagnostics, completions, hover documentation, and signature help for .formula, .ats, and .ata files.

When the daemon is running, it auto-spawns airtable-user-lsp --tcp so multiple editors share one language server instance. The TCP port is written to ~/.airtable-user-mcp/daemon.lock as port_lsp.

See packages/lsp-server/README.md for per-editor configuration (Neovim, Zed, OpenCode, Helix).

---

Supported IDEs

The extension auto-configures MCP for all major AI-enabled editors:

Don't use VS Code? Use the standalone MCP server directly:

npx airtable-user-mcp

---

Find Us

---

Requirements

• VS Code ^1.100.0 (or any fork exposing the McpServerDefinitionProvider API)
• Node.js — bundled via the VS Code runtime; no separate install needed
• Google Chrome (or Edge / Chromium) — the Airtable login flow uses Patchright in headless mode. Falls back to msedge on Windows and chromium on Linux. The extension shows an actionable warning if no supported browser is detected.

---

Development

This is a pnpm monorepo.

Package	Description
packages/extension	VS Code extension host (TypeScript + tsup)
packages/webview	React dashboard webview (Vite + Tailwind v4)
packages/shared	Shared types and message protocol
packages/mcp-server	airtable-user-mcp — ESM Node MCP server
packages/lsp-server	airtable-user-lsp — LSP server for formula / script / automation files
scripts/	Build tooling (esbuild bundler, dep vendoring)

pnpm install          # install all packages
pnpm build            # build shared → webview → mcp bundle → extension
pnpm package          # build + create airtable-formula-X.Y.Z.vsix
pnpm test             # run all unit tests
pnpm dev              # start webview dev server (browser preview)

How the MCP server is bundled: scripts/bundle-mcp.mjs esbuilds packages/mcp-server/src/ into packages/extension/dist/mcp/. Then scripts/prepare-package-deps.mjs vendors patchright, patchright-core, otpauth, impit and @ngrok/ngrok into dist/node_modules/ before vsce package runs, so an installed extension needs no npm install at runtime.

Platform-specific VSIXes. impit (the Chrome-TLS HTTP client) and @ngrok/ngrok (the ngrok tunnel provider) keep their compiled native binary in separate per-platform npm packages, and only the one matching the build machine is ever installed. A single VSIX therefore cannot carry working native binaries for every platform. Instead we publish one VSIX per platform, each vendoring only its own binaries — VS Code and Open VSX hand each user the build matching their machine. Supported targets:

Target	impit	@ngrok/ngrok
win32-x64	impit-win32-x64-msvc	@ngrok/ngrok-win32-x64-msvc
win32-arm64	impit-win32-arm64-msvc	@ngrok/ngrok-win32-arm64-msvc
darwin-x64	impit-darwin-x64	@ngrok/ngrok-darwin-x64
darwin-arm64	impit-darwin-arm64	@ngrok/ngrok-darwin-arm64
linux-x64	impit-linux-x64-gnu	@ngrok/ngrok-linux-x64-gnu
linux-arm64	impit-linux-arm64-gnu	@ngrok/ngrok-linux-arm64-gnu
alpine-x64	impit-linux-x64-musl	@ngrok/ngrok-linux-x64-musl
alpine-arm64	impit-linux-arm64-musl	@ngrok/ngrok-linux-arm64-musl

linux-armhf (32-bit ARM) is not published: impit ships no arm-gnueabihf build, so an armhf VSIX would advertise airtableFormula.mcp.httpClient: "impit" and then fail with "Cannot find native binding". No untargeted fallback is published either, for the same reason.

The matrix is defined once in scripts/vsix-targets.mjs; versions and tarball hashes are pinned to pnpm-lock.yaml. scripts/package-targets.mjs builds every target and scripts/assert-vsix-binaries.mjs verifies each artifact contains exactly its own platform's .node files and no other's — byte-for-byte, against the SHA-256 digests in scripts/native-binary-digests.json, which are recorded from tarballs verified against pnpm-lock.yaml's integrity hashes. Filenames, package.json os/cpu, and a magic number are all labels an artifact carries about itself and cannot distinguish an x64 binary from an ARM64 one, or a glibc build from a musl one; an exact digest can.

Together these are eight target artifact packaging/assertion smokes — eight .vsix files built and their contents verified on one machine. They are not runtime smokes of eight native bindings: any single host can only load the binding compiled for itself, so only the host target's binding receives a genuine runtime load. Verifying the other seven by exact content is the strongest claim a single-host build can make about them.

The standalone npm package airtable-user-mcp is unaffected and stays universal — npm resolves the right optional dependency on your own machine at install time.

---

Support This Project

This project is built and maintained with the help of AI coding tools. If you find it useful and want to support continued development (new tools, updates, bug fixes), you can contribute by gifting Claude Code credits — the primary tool used to build this project.

Interested? Open an issue or reach out to discuss feature requests and sponsorship.

---

License

MIT