CoIsland
Download
esc
↑↓ move↵ openesc close
Connectors · Issues & docs

Connect Airtable

Set up with your AI

Know when a record starts matching a formula, or someone edits one, without keeping the base open.

You need
Personal access token airtable.com › Create new token airtable.com
The form asks
  • Connector name
  • Personal access token
You can watch
  • Records
  • Changed records
Access
GET requests only, with a token scoped to read records and schemas
On this page

To connect Airtable to CoIsland you need a personal access token you create yourself, with two read scopes and only the bases you want to watch. No OAuth integration, nothing to register. CoIsland calls Airtable’s Web API straight from your Mac, keeps the token in your login Keychain, and only ever reads.

Create an Airtable personal access token

  1. Open airtable.com/create/tokens and select Create new token.
  2. Name it, such as CoIsland.
  3. Under Scopes, add data.records:read and schema.bases:read.
  4. Under Access, add the bases (or a workspace) to watch.
  5. Select Create token and copy it now: Airtable shows it only once.

Any Airtable user can create one, on every plan. Legacy API keys (starting with key) no longer work. On Enterprise, an admin can block API access to the organization’s bases for everyone not on an allowlist.

Connect Airtable in CoIsland

Open Settings › Connectors, click +, and choose Airtable.

Field What to enter
Connector name What monitors call it: airtable. Letters, digits, _ and -.
Personal access token The token you created.

Test connector calls GET /v0/meta/whoami and lists the bases the token reaches. It saves nothing, and says so if the token has no base yet or lacks schema.bases:read. The token is only ever sent to https://api.airtable.com, in the Authorization header.

Choose what to watch: the two Airtable monitor kinds

The first line names the place, written by the editor’s pickers: base:, table: and optionally view:. The lines after are a formula, as in a formula field or filterByFormula; none matches every record. A check reads up to 1,000 records.

Records

A record alerts when it starts matching.

base:appLkNDICXNqxSDhG table:tbltp8DGLhqbUmjK1 view:viwQpsuEDqHFqegkp
{Status} = 'Blocked'

Changed records

A record alerts each time one of its fields is edited within within: (1h, 6h, 24h or 7d; 24h unless given). A formula, rollup or lookup recomputing is not an edit.

base:appLkNDICXNqxSDhG table:tbltp8DGLhqbUmjK1 within:1h

What an Airtable alert shows

The notch lists a record by its primary field, with Tasks · Status: Blocked · Owner: Ana Lopez under it. Clicking opens the alert in CoIsland, where the record fills in live: every field in the table’s order, long text in full, and Open in Airtable.

What an Airtable monitor’s watch file looks like

-- name: Blocked records
-- kind: airtable.records
-- connector: airtable
-- alert: new-rows

base:appLkNDICXNqxSDhG table:tbltp8DGLhqbUmjK1
{Status} = 'Blocked'

The kinds are airtable.records and airtable.changed.

Rate limits

Airtable allows 5 requests a second per base and 50 per token; after a 429 it asks for 30 seconds. A check costs one request for the table’s schema and one per 100 records. When Airtable asks CoIsland to slow down, checks back off on their own.

Troubleshooting Airtable connector errors

  • The token was refused. Airtable answered 401: the token was deleted or regenerated.
  • … not allowed. Airtable answered 403: the token lacks a scope, was not given this base, or your organization blocks personal tokens on its bases.
  • Airtable refused the request: then Airtable’s words, such as Unknown field names in a formula.
  • Table … no longer exists in Airtable, or the token was not given it. Pick the table or view again.
  • That is a legacy API key. Create a personal access token instead.

Stuck? Open an issue on GitHub, or write to hello@coisland.app.

Docs