Skip to main content
Glama

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

62

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

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

Tool profiles & per-tool toggles

✅ read-only / safe-write / full / custom

❌ 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


Demo

Using Claude Code to manage base views, computed fields & extensions — Reddit demo


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 (62 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

Tool Management

1

List profiles, switch profile, toggle tools/categories (meta-tool, always enabled)

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

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

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

Install Server
A
license - permissive license
A
quality
A
maintenance

Maintenance

Maintainers
8hResponse time
1wRelease cycle
27Releases (12mo)

Latest Blog Posts

MCP directory API

We provide all the information about MCP servers via our MCP API.

curl -X GET 'https://glama.ai/api/mcp/v1/servers/Automations-Project/VSCode-Airtable-Formula'

If you have feedback or need assistance with the MCP directory API, please join our Discord server