Airtable MCP CLI

Manage your Airtable bases from the terminal.

This CLI discovers commands from the Airtable MCP server at runtime. airtable-mcp tools shows whatever the server exposes at that moment. If the server adds, removes, or renames a tool, the CLI reflects that without a client release. See DESIGN.md for the design rationale.

Install

npm install -g @airtable/mcp-cli

Or download a standalone binary:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Airtable/airtable-mcp-cli/main/install.sh | sh

Quick start

Set up your personal access token. Credentials are stored in a default profile. Use --profile <name> to create additional profiles.

airtable-mcp configure

Discover what you have access to:

airtable-mcp tools
airtable-mcp list-bases

Then act on it:

airtable-mcp list-records --baseId appXXX --tableIdOrName Tasks

The first time you run a tool, the CLI fetches the tool list from the server and caches it for 60 seconds. After that, subsequent commands are fast. Use --refresh on any tool command to bypass the cache.

This CLI is experimental and tool names, arguments, and output formats may change without notice. The tools you see today may be renamed, removed, or have their arguments changed in a future server update. If you're scripting against specific tools, check for tool existence before calling and handle missing or unexpected fields in output.

Commands

airtable-mcp configure               Set up personal access token
airtable-mcp whoami                   Show current auth status
airtable-mcp logout                   Remove saved credentials
airtable-mcp tools                    List available tools
airtable-mcp <tool> [--flags]         Run a tool
airtable-mcp <tool> --help, -h        Show help and flags for a tool
airtable-mcp completions <shell>      Generate shell completions (bash, zsh, fish)
airtable-mcp --help, -h               Show help
airtable-mcp --version, -v            Print version

Most commands accept --profile <name> to switch between accounts.

Flags

Tool output defaults to formatted JSON. The tools command defaults to a human-readable list.

Profiles

Manage multiple accounts:

airtable-mcp configure --profile work
airtable-mcp configure --profile personal
airtable-mcp tools --profile work

Skills

Install pre-built skills for common workflows:

npx skills add airtable/skills

Other installation methods can be found in the Airtable Skills repo.

Automation and agents

This CLI is meant to be driven by scripts and agents. Flags, output behavior, and exit codes are the stable part. Tool names and schemas are not; they come from the server at runtime.

Useful pieces:

• AIRTABLE_TOKEN: skip configure, useful in CI
• tools --json: discover tools programmatically
• --input -: pass arguments as JSON on stdin
• -q: keep stdout clean
• --output raw: return the server response without JSON formatting

Example:

export AIRTABLE_TOKEN=pat_xxx
airtable-mcp tools --json
echo '{"baseId":"appXXX","tableIdOrName":"Tasks"}' | airtable-mcp list-records --input - -q

Environment variables

Endpoints are restricted to HTTPS on *.airtable.com to prevent token exfiltration to arbitrary servers.

Configuration

Config is stored in ~/.airtable/cli.json with restricted file permissions (0600). The config directory is created with 0700 permissions. Tool definitions are cached in ~/.airtable/cache-{profile}.json (0600) with a 60-second TTL. On read the cache is checked against a stored hash to detect corruption, and cached tool metadata has control and escape characters stripped before it is printed. Neither is a defense against a local attacker who can already run code as your user; treat the cache file as trusted only to the extent your user account is.

Development

npm install
npm run build
npm run typecheck
npm test

Install locally as the airtable-mcp command:

npm run build
npm link

After npm link, only re-run npm run build to pick up changes — no need to re-link.

Unlink when done:

npm unlink -g @airtable/mcp-cli

License

MIT