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Summary
Read Airtable bases, table schemas, and records from any AI agent. 4 read-only tools, Personal Access Token auth.
💡 No install? Use cloud.anythingmcp.com directly. Sign in, click Connectors → Airtable, paste your credentials, mint an MCP API key — done. No Docker, no
git clone, no local server.
Airtable + ChatGPT
Read Airtable bases, table schemas, and records from any AI agent. 4 read-only tools, Personal Access Token auth.
Prerequisites
See the full setup instructions baked into the connector (visible in the in-app store when you select the connector). The required environment variables for this connector are:
AIRTABLE_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN
Step 1 — Get credentials
Setup:
- Create a Personal Access Token at https://airtable.com/create/tokens.
- Grant only the
data.records:readandschema.bases:readscopes. - Restrict the token's access to only the bases this connector must read.
- Set
AIRTABLE_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN.
Authentication: Authorization: Bearer ${AIRTABLE_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN}. Use a scoped Personal Access Token, not a legacy API key.
Discovery order: call airtable_list_bases, then airtable_list_tables with a base ID to find table IDs, names, fields, and views. Use a table ID when possible because names can change.
…(continued in the in-app connector instructions)
Step 2 — Install the adapter
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/HelpCode-ai/anythingmcp/main/docker-compose.quickstart.yml -o docker-compose.yml
printf 'JWT_SECRET=%s\nENCRYPTION_KEY=%s\n' "$(openssl rand -hex 32)" "$(openssl rand -hex 32)" > .env
docker compose up -d
Step 3 — Add the connector in ChatGPT
ChatGPT supports MCP servers via the Connectors feature (Plus / Pro / Team / Enterprise plans). The free tier does not support custom connectors.
- Open ChatGPT → Settings → Connectors (or click the 🔧 icon in the composer → Manage connectors).
- Click "Add custom connector".
- Fill in:
- Name:
Airtable - MCP server URL:
https://cloud.anythingmcp.com/mcp - Authentication: Bearer token → paste your MCP API key (from AnythingMCP → Profile → MCP API Keys → New Key)
- Name:
- Click Connect to authorize.
Available tools
| Tool | What it does |
|---|---|
airtable_list_bases | List bases accessible to the Personal Access Token |
airtable_list_tables | List a base's table schemas, including table IDs, names, fields, and views |
airtable_list_records | List records from a table |
airtable_get_record | Get one record by ID from a table, for example record ID recABC123DEF456 |
FAQ
Does ChatGPT free tier work with custom MCP connectors? No — Plus, Pro, Team or Enterprise required.
Next steps
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