Airtable Formula

Formula editor, MCP server, and AI skills for VS Code

Not affiliated with Airtable Inc. This is a community-maintained project.

Experimental — This project is under active development and not intended for production use. APIs, tools, and behavior may change without notice.

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	36
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
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	❌	✅
Extension / block management (install, enable, rename, duplicate, remove)	❌	✅
Create dashboard pages	❌	✅
`filterByFormula` on record queries	❌ Explicitly disallowed	✅
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

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 two products from one source tree:

	Product	Install
	Airtable Formula — VS Code extension	Marketplace
	airtable-user-mcp — Standalone MCP server	`npx airtable-user-mcp`

Features

VS Code Extension

Formula Editor — Syntax highlighting, IntelliSense, beautify / minify for .formula files
MCP Server — One-click MCP registration for multiple IDEs
AI Skills — Auto-install Airtable-specific skills, rules, and workflows for AI coding assistants
Airtable Login — Credentials in OS keychain, browser-based auth with auto-refresh
Dashboard — React webview with Overview, Setup, and Settings tabs

MCP Server (61 Tools)

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

Category	Tools	Highlights
Schema Read	9	Full schema inspection — bases, tables, fields, views, sidebar sections, record templates
Table Management	3	create / rename / delete tables
Field Management	8	Create formula / rollup / lookup / count fields, validate formulas, update descriptions, delete
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

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

Supported IDEs

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

Claude Desktop	Claude Code	Cursor	Windsurf	Cline	Amp
Claude Desktop	Claude Code	Cursor	Windsurf	Cline	Amp

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

npx airtable-user-mcp

Find Us

Registry	Link
VS Code Marketplace	`Nskha.airtable-formula`
npm	`airtable-user-mcp`
Open VSX	`Nskha.airtable-formula`
MCP Registry	`io.github.automations-project/airtable-user-mcp`
Glama	glama.ai/mcp/servers
PulseMCP	pulsemcp.com
MCP.so	mcp.so

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
`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, and otpauth into dist/node_modules/ before vsce package runs. The VSIX is fully self-contained.

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

Airtable Formula

Nskha

Airtable Formula

Why this exists

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

Use both MCPs together

What's In This Repo

Features

VS Code Extension

MCP Server (61 Tools)

Supported IDEs

Find Us

Requirements

Development

Support This Project

License

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