How to Connect Airtable to OpenClaw

Airtable uses personal access tokens (PATs) for API authentication. Unlike the older Airtable API key (which was global and granted access to all bases), PATs are scoped to specific permissions and optionally to specific bases. Navigate to airtable.com/create/tokens (or go to your Airtable account icon > Developer Hub > Personal access tokens). Click 'Create new token'. Give it a descriptive name like 'OpenClaw Integration'. Select the scopes you need. For read-only access, enable `data.records:read` and `schema.bases:read`. For full CRUD, also enable `data.records:write`. For accessing all bases on your account, select 'All workspaces and bases' under the Access section — or restrict to specific bases if you prefer tighter access control. Click 'Create token'. Airtable shows you the token once — copy it immediately. The token format starts with `pat` and is a long string of characters. If you lose it, you must revoke it and generate a new one. Store this token as AIRTABLE_API_KEY in your OpenClaw configuration.

1# Set your Airtable PAT in OpenClaw config
2clawhub config set AIRTABLE_API_KEY pat_XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
3
4# Verify it is set
5clawhub config get AIRTABLE_API_KEY

The Airtable REST API identifies bases and tables by their unique IDs rather than their display names. You need both the base ID and table ID (or table name) for API calls. **Base ID:** Open your Airtable base in the browser. The URL format is: `https://airtable.com/appXXXXXXXXXXXXXX/...`. The `appXXXXXXXXXXXXXX` portion (starting with `app`) is your base ID. **Table ID or name:** In the same URL, the next segment is the table ID (format: `tblXXXXXXXXXXXXXX`) or you can use the table name directly in API calls. The Airtable API accepts both the table ID and the table name (URL-encoded) in the endpoint path. Alternatively, navigate to airtable.com/developers/web/api/introduction and select your base from the dropdown — this shows the complete API documentation for your specific base including all table IDs and field names. Write down your base ID and the names of the tables you want to access — you will use these in the API endpoint paths in the next step.

1# Airtable URL structure:
2# https://airtable.com/{BASE_ID}/{TABLE_ID}/...
3# Example:
4# https://airtable.com/appABC123XYZ456/tblDEF789GHI012/...
5#                      ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
6#                      Base ID          Table ID
7
8# Test the API connection and list tables in your base:
9curl -H "Authorization: Bearer pat_XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX" \
10  "https://api.airtable.com/v0/meta/bases/appYOURBASEID/tables"

OpenClaw's Direct API integration layer lets you configure reusable HTTP request patterns for services like Airtable. Create an integration config file that stores your base ID, default table, and API endpoint patterns. Open (or create) `~/.openclaw/config.yaml` and add the Airtable integration configuration under the `integrations` key. Set your base ID and any tables you want to access. The AIRTABLE_API_KEY is automatically read from your environment config — you do not repeat it in this file. After saving the config, run `clawhub reload` to apply it. Test the connection with the curl command in Step 2 or by asking OpenClaw to list records from a table.

1# ~/.openclaw/config.yaml
2integrations:
3  airtable:
4    base_id: "appYOURBASEIDHERE"   # From your Airtable base URL
5    # Define tables you want to access
6    tables:
7      content_calendar: "Content Calendar"   # Table name (or use tbl ID)
8      leads: "Leads"
9      tasks: "Task Queue"
10    # API settings
11    api_version: "v0"               # Airtable API version
12    max_records: 100                # Max records per request (Airtable max: 100)
13    page_size: 100                  # Records per page for paginated requests

Test reading records from your Airtable table. The Airtable API returns records as JSON objects with an `id` field, a `createdTime` field, and a `fields` object containing your table's field values. For filtering records, Airtable uses its own formula syntax called filterByFormula — a string expression that evaluates against each record. Common patterns: filter by field value (`{Status}='Active'`), text contains (`SEARCH('keyword', {Notes})`), or date comparisons (`IS_AFTER({Due Date}, '2026-01-01')`). Pagination: Airtable returns up to 100 records per request. For tables with more records, the response includes an `offset` field — pass this as a query parameter to get the next page. The skill handles pagination automatically in most configurations, but for manual API calls you need to implement the pagination loop yourself.

1# Read all records from a table (max 100 per request)
2curl -H "Authorization: Bearer pat_XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX" \
3  "https://api.airtable.com/v0/appYOURBASEID/Content%20Calendar"
4
5# Filter records by field value
6curl -H "Authorization: Bearer pat_XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX" \
7  "https://api.airtable.com/v0/appYOURBASEID/Content%20Calendar?filterByFormula=%7BStatus%7D%3D'Ready%20to%20Publish'"
8
9# Sort records by a field
10curl -H "Authorization: Bearer pat_XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX" \
11  "https://api.airtable.com/v0/appYOURBASEID/Content%20Calendar?sort%5B0%5D%5Bfield%5D=Due%20Date&sort%5B0%5D%5Bdirection%5D=asc"
12
13# Read a specific record by ID
14curl -H "Authorization: Bearer pat_XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX" \
15  "https://api.airtable.com/v0/appYOURBASEID/Content%20Calendar/recXXXXXXXXXXXXXX"

The Airtable API uses standard HTTP methods for write operations: POST to create records, PATCH to update specific fields, PUT to replace all fields, and DELETE to remove records. For batch operations, Airtable allows creating, updating, or deleting up to 10 records per API call — pass an array of records in the request body. This is far more efficient than individual record operations when processing multiple items. Error handling is important for write operations. Airtable returns 422 errors for validation failures (wrong field type, required field missing, link to non-existent record), 429 for rate limiting (5 requests/second per base), and 403 for permission errors (PAT scope does not include write access). RapidDev recommends wrapping write operations in OpenClaw workflow steps that verify the response status before proceeding — catching errors early prevents partial updates that leave your Airtable data in an inconsistent state.

1# Create a new record
2curl -X POST \
3  -H "Authorization: Bearer pat_XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX" \
4  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
5  "https://api.airtable.com/v0/appYOURBASEID/Leads" \
6  -d '{
7    "fields": {
8      "Company Name": "Acme Corp",
9      "Contact Email": "contact@acme.com",
10      "Status": "New",
11      "Source": "OpenClaw"
12    }
13  }'
14
15# Update a record (PATCH updates only specified fields)
16curl -X PATCH \
17  -H "Authorization: Bearer pat_XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX" \
18  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
19  "https://api.airtable.com/v0/appYOURBASEID/Leads/recXXXXXXXXXXXXXX" \
20  -d '{"fields": {"Status": "Contacted", "Last Contacted": "2026-03-30"}}'