BuiltOnAir

In this third installment of our DevOps series, Dan Fellars dives deep into the administrative side of running a business on Airtable. We explore the critical questions of who controls your environment, who can change your bases, and what happens to your automations and integrations when a team member departs. Dan covers everything from the nuances of user roles (Creator vs. Editor) to the powerful, often overlooked feature of field-level permissions using groups. You'll also learn how to use the Admin Panel to tighten security through SSO and 2FA, and how to audit your Personal Access Tokens to avoid technical debt and broken workflows.📝 Read the full episode post and show notes: https://builtonair.com/s26-e04-airtable-user-permissions-and-governance-guide

Ever renamed a field in Airtable only to realize it broke five automations and a critical formula? You aren't alone. In this episode of BuiltOnAir, Dan Fellars dives into the "DevOps" side of Airtable, focusing on how to manage changes in a production environment without the fear of breaking everything. We cover practical strategies for testing structural changes, from using the "Show Dependencies" feature to leveraging the powerful App Sandbox for Business and Enterprise users. If you are managing multiple bases, you'll also learn how Managed Components from the Builders Hub can save you hours of manual updates by allowing you to deploy changes from a single development base. Tune in to learn how to build more resilient, professional-grade Airtable systems that stay stable even as they grow.📝 Read the full episode post and show notes: https://builtonair.com/s26-e03-managing-airtable-production-changes-safely

In this deep dive into Airtable administration, Dan Fellars explores the essential skills needed to protect, find, and restore your data. Whether you are managing a small team or a large organization, understanding how to use snapshots, record revision history, and the trash bin is critical for preventing data loss and ensuring business continuity. Dan also covers the nuances of CSV exports and imports, including how to use the CSV Import Extension for merging data and how to configure interfaces for controlled data entry. Finally, he shares a high-level professional strategy for managing record limits: using JSON objects and automations to archive old data safely before deleting it, ensuring you keep your base performant without losing valuable history.📝 Read the full episode post and show notes: https://builtonair.com/s26-e02-protecting-and-restoring-your-airtable-data

Alli Alosa and Danny Fellars dive into a series of recent Airtable product updates. They discuss the new ability to perform unique counts on linked record fields and how this functionality specifically improves data visualization within interface charts. The walkthrough covers several workflow improvements, including better handling of lookup and rollup configurations, field matching during connection changes, and smarter single-select filter behavior. Finally, they touch on various user interface refinements, such as updates to the interface record builder, dashboard count formatting, and general UI cleanup to improve the user experience. ⏱ In this cut: 00:26 — Gemini and Claude connections 01:25 — Unique counts on linked records 04:32 — Lookup and rollup improvements 10:25 — Interface record builder updates 11:35 — Dashboard count formatting 13:47 — UI and experience improvementsThis is a clip from S26-E01 of the BuiltOnAir Podcast.

Danny and Alli discuss the significant expansion of Airtable automation limits, which now range from 75 for free users up to 200 for enterprise accounts. They also touch on recent stability fixes, including auto-retries for script input errors. The conversation covers new automation capabilities, such as the ability to delete records directly and dynamic date field comparisons. The hosts weigh in on the potential risks of automating deletions and share best practices for using these new features safely. Finally, they explore the impact of MCP integration for creating and editing custom scripts and highlight several UI/UX improvements designed to streamline workflows, like improved field duplication and expanded text editing. ⏱ In this cut: 00:13 — Increased automation limits 04:22 — Deleting records via automation 06:35 — Date field comparisons in find records 07:56 — MCP integration for custom scripts 12:40 — Field duplication UI improvements 13:40 — Expanded text editing in AI fieldsThis is a clip from S26-E01 of the BuiltOnAir Podcast.

Rupert from DocsAutomator demonstrates an advanced e-signing suite designed for seamless Airtable integration. Unlike traditional manual workarounds, this tool provides a legally compliant way to manage business contracts with full audit trails and seven-year document retention. The demonstration features the DocsAutomator AI agent, which can build complex legal templates through a simple chat interface. The agent identifies Airtable data structures, automatically maps fields, and generates necessary automations to handle the entire contract lifecycle. Watch the end-to-end workflow in action, from initial template generation and data mapping to sending signing requests and receiving the final, signed document back into Airtable, complete with a compliance certificate containing IP addresses and hashes. ⏱ In this cut: 02:14 — Overview of the e-signing solution and compliance 03:10 — Generating contract templates with the AI agent 07:15 — Automatic Airtable data mapping and template creation 12:15 — Managing the end-to-end signing process 17:30 — Legal audit trails and document compliance🔗 Resources mentioned in this episode:• DocsAutomator: https://docsautomator.co?via=on2airThis is a clip from S25-E08 of the BuiltOnAir Podcast.

A deep dive into the technical workflow of DocsAutomator, demonstrating how to map Airtable fields and related line items to Google Doc placeholders. Rupert explains how the built-in AI agent can reverse the traditional workflow by generating templates directly from your existing Airtable data structure. The discussion covers post-generation actions, such as saving PDFs back to Airtable, merging existing PDFs, and sending documents via Gmail or Outlook. It also explores the technical complexities of working with the Google Docs API and a breakdown of supported platforms including Notion, ClickUp, SmartSuite, and more. ⏱ In this cut: 00:22 — Mapping Airtable data to Google Doc placeholders 00:42 — Using AI to generate templates from data structures 01:35 — Mapping line items and related tables 06:06 — Post-generation actions and webhooks 09:56 — Challenges of the Google Docs API 13:21 — Supported platforms and formats🔗 Resources mentioned in this episode:• DocsAutomator: https://docsautomator.co?via=on2airThis is a clip from S25-E08 of the BuiltOnAir Podcast.

The team explores advanced workflows for managing AI agents, specifically how to use formulas and triggers to prevent an AI from overwriting manual human edits. They demonstrate using "last modified" fields and custom checkbox logic to create a "global stopper" for automations. They also dive into the various output types available for field agents, including single and multiple select fields, number formats, and image analysis for tasks like extracting data from receipts. Finally, they demonstrate the utility of web-searching for images, such as company logos, and share a practical example of using AI agents to research hotel amenities and reviews for travel planning. ⏱ In this cut: 01:05 — Protecting human edits from AI overwrites 02:51 — Using formulas to control AI triggers 11:44 — Exploring AI output types and image analysis 12:36 — Finding company logos via web search 16:23 — Real-world use case: AI for travel researchThis is a clip from S25-E07 of the BuiltOnAir Podcast.

Alli Alosa provides a deep dive into AI field agents within Airtable, explaining how they function as mini-agents within your database tables. She discusses the evolution of field agent outputs and how users can now work in tandem with the AI within a single field. The discussion covers practical prompt engineering, including how to reference other fields and how to enable web search tools. Crucially, Alli explains how to manage triggers to avoid wasting credits. She demonstrates why automatic generation can be problematic and shows how to use scheduling, manual commands, and custom trigger simulations to maintain full control over AI usage. ⏱ In this cut: 01:06 — What are AI field agents? 03:30 — Writing effective prompts and using web search 09:44 — Avoiding wasted credits with automatic generation 11:12 — Managing triggers: schedules and manual commands 15:38 — Simulating automation to trigger agents on commandThis is a clip from S25-E07 of the BuiltOnAir Podcast.

Kamille Parks demonstrates how to use the Model Context Protocol (MCP) to manage Airtable automations via Claude. She walks through updating an existing automation by adding placeholder email addresses to a notification step, showing how the AI can modify specific parameters while preserving existing context. The demo also covers management tasks like deleting an automation and using the "undo" feature to revert actions. By leveraging action IDs tracked through the MCP, the AI can effectively restore what was previously deleted. Finally, the segment explores creating new scheduled automations from scratch and exporting all base automations as JSON for auditing and configuration reviews. ⏱ In this cut: 01:58 — Updating an existing automation 06:52 — Deleting and undoing actions 08:36 — Creating new scheduled automations 16:11 — Exporting automations as JSON📝 Read this clip's post: https://builtonair.com/s25-e06-ai-powered-airtable-automations-updating-and-reverting-with-mcpThis is a clip from S25-E06 of the BuiltOnAir Podcast.