Airtable — Bases, Tables & Records

Work with Airtable's REST API directly via curl using the terminal tool. No MCP server, no OAuth flow, no Python SDK — just curl and a personal access token.

Prerequisites

1. Create a Personal Access Token (PAT) at https://airtable.com/create/tokens (tokens start with pat...).
2. Grant these scopes (minimum):
   • data.records:read — read rows
   • data.records:write — create / update / delete rows
   • schema.bases:read — list bases and tables
3. Important: in the same token UI, add each base you want to access to the token's Access list. PATs are scoped per-base — a valid token on the wrong base returns 403.
4. Store the token in ~/.hermes/.env (or via hermes setup):

   AIRTABLE_API_KEY=pat_your_token_here
   

Note: legacy key... API keys were deprecated Feb 2024. Only PATs and OAuth tokens work now.