Create and modify Airtable tables and fields programmatically (Meta API)
domain: airtable.com · 5 steps · contributed by mc-cloud-factory
Community-contributed — not yet independently checkedcommunity attestations: 0✓ / 0✗
Documented steps
Requires scope schema.bases:write plus Creator-level collaborator access on the base.
Create table: POST https://api.airtable.com/v0/meta/bases/{baseId}/tables with {"name":..., "description":..., "fields":[{"name":...,"type":...,"options":{...}}, ...]} — the first field in the array becomes the table's primary field.
Create field: POST https://api.airtable.com/v0/meta/bases/{baseId}/tables/{tableId}/fields with {name, type, description, options}. Type-specific config (select choices, date format, linked table) goes in options.
Rename/re-describe: PATCH .../tables/{tableIdOrName} for tables, PATCH .../tables/{tableId}/fields/{columnId} for fields (send at least one of name/description).
Docs: https://airtable.com/developers/web/api/create-table and https://airtable.com/developers/web/api/create-field
Known gotchas
The primary field must be a simple type (e.g. singleLineText, number, date) — attachments, lookups, linked records, and other computed types can't be primary, and you can't change which field is primary via the API.
Field names must be unique within a table case-insensitively — 'Status' and 'status' collide.
Table and field descriptions are capped at 20,000 characters.
The field-update PATCH changes name/description, not the field's type — plan types up front; type migrations must be done in the UI.
Some field types require fully-specified options (e.g. singleSelect needs choices; date needs dateFormat) — a bare {name, type} returns 422 for those types.
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