Airtable

This connector captures data from Airtable into Flow collections.

It is available for use in the Flow web application. For local development or open-source workflows, ghcr.io/estuary/source-airtable-native:dev provides the latest version of the connector as a Docker image. You can also follow the link in your browser to see past image versions.

Supported data resources

This connector captures data from accessible bases and tables in an Airtable account. All available tables will appear after connecting to Airtable.

Resources are named using the pattern {base_name}/{table_name}/{table_id}.

info

If you rename a base or table in Airtable, the connector treats the renamed resource as a new resource. The connector stops populating collections under the old name and begins populating new collections with the updated name.

Prerequisites

Authentication

Capturing data from Airtable requires an active Airtable account and an access token.

Setup

To create an access token, do the following:

1. Log into your Airtable account.
2. In the navigation bar, click on "Builder Hub".
3. In the "Developers" section, click on "Personal access tokens".
4. Click on "Create token".
5. Give your token a name and add the following scopes:
   • data.records:read
   • data.recordComments:read
   • schema.bases:read
6. Under the "Access" section, choose the bases you want to capture data from.
7. Click on "Create token".
8. Copy the token for use in the connector configuration.

Configuration

You configure connectors either in the Flow web app, or by directly editing the catalog specification file. See connectors to learn more about using connectors. The values and specification sample below provide configuration details specific to the Airtable source connector.

Properties

Endpoint

Property	Title	Description	Type	Required/Default
/credentials/access_token	Access Token	The Airtable access token.	string	Required
/credentials/credentials_title	Authentication Method	Name of the credentials set. Set to Private App Credentials.	string	Required

Bindings

Property	Title	Description	Type	Required/Default
/name	Data resource	Name of the data resource.	string	Required
/interval	Interval	Interval between data syncs	string
/schedule	Formula Field Refresh Schedule	The schedule for refreshing this binding's formula fields. Accepts a cron expression. For example, a schedule of 55 23 * * * means the binding will refresh formula fields at 23:55 UTC every day. If left empty, the binding will not refresh formula fields.	string	55 23 * * *

Sample

captures:
  ${PREFIX}/${CAPTURE_NAME}:
    endpoint:
      connector:
        image: ghcr.io/estuary/source-airtable-native:dev
        config:
          credentials:
            credentials_title: Private App Credentials
            access_token: <secret>
    bindings:
      - resource:
          name: base_name/table_name/table_id
        target: ${PREFIX}/base_name/table_name/table_id
      {...}

Incremental Replication

Tables that include a lastModifiedTime field are replicated incrementally, meaning only new and updated records are captured after the initial sync. Tables without this field are replicated using full refreshes, where all records are fetched on every sync.

To enable incremental replication for a table, add a lastModifiedTime field:

1. Click the + icon (Add field) in your table.
2. Select Last modified time as the field type.
3. Enter a name for the field.
4. In the Fields section, select All editable fields.
5. In the Formatting section, select Include time.
6. Click Create field.

Formula Fields

Airtable tables can contain formula fields, fields whose values are calculated at query time. Formula field updates do not cause lastModifiedTime fields to change. Since the connector uses lastModifiedTime fields to incrementally detect changes, formula field updates are not incrementally captured.

To address this challenge, the Airtable connector is able to refresh the values of formula fields on a schedule after the initial backfill completes. This is controlled at a binding level by the cron expression in the schedule property. When a scheduled formula field refresh occurs, the connector fetches every record's current formula field values and merges them into the associated collection using merge reduction strategies.

Formula Field Errors

The connector omits formula fields containing error codes to avoid schema evolution that would widen column types in downstream materializations.