Airtable destination

Airtable is available as a destination connector for reverse ELT. MantrixFlow writes transformed rows into an existing Airtable table in batches and uses the selected merge fields to create or update records.

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Supported behavior

The delivery runner never creates a final destination table. Create the table and its fields in Airtable first, then refresh its schema in MantrixFlow.

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Create the Airtable table

In the destination base, create a dedicated table for the pipeline. Add every field produced by the SQL model, using Airtable field types that accept those values. Example table: Choose a merge field that is populated and unique for every output row. An external database primary key or Airtable source record ID is usually the safest choice.

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Create the destination connection

Create a Personal Access Token with access to the destination base and these scopes:

• schema.bases:read
• data.records:read
• data.records:write

Then:

1. Open Connections.
2. Click + New Connection.
3. Choose the Destination role.
4. Select Airtable.
5. Enter the connection name and Personal Access Token.
6. Click Test Connection and save after it succeeds.

Read access is required because the connector resolves existing records during Upsert. Write access is required to create and update records.

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Configure the destination

1. Open Destinations and click Add destination.
2. Choose the Airtable destination connection.
3. Click Load bases, then select the base and existing table.
4. Save the destination.
5. Open Transformations, select the Airtable destination, and create the SQL model that produces the final output columns.
6. Save, validate, preview, and publish the revision.
7. Return to the destination editor.
8. Under Published output targets, map every required output column to a writable Airtable field.
9. Mark at least one mapped Airtable field as a Merge key.
10. Save the destination.

The saved route uses stable base, table, and field IDs. Refreshing table schema preserves the selected table assignment when it still exists.

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Mapping rules

• A source output column maps to at most one Airtable destination field.
• A merge field must also be present in the field mapping.
• Every row must contain a non-empty value for every selected merge field.
• Calculated and read-only fields cannot be mapped.
• Decimal values are sent as numbers; dates and timestamps are sent in ISO 8601 format; tuples are sent as arrays.
• Airtable automatic type conversion is disabled. Match the SQL output to the Airtable field type before running.

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Upsert behavior

MantrixFlow submits records in Airtable-sized batches and performs Upsert with the configured merge fields:

• a matching record is updated;
• no match creates a record;
• multiple merge fields form a composite match;
• an empty merge-field value fails the run rather than creating an ambiguous duplicate.

Run the same input twice and verify that the destination row count remains stable. Updated values should change on the existing Airtable records.

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Verify delivery

After the run succeeds:

1. Open Runs and confirm rows written > 0 and failed rows = 0.
2. Open the Airtable destination table.
3. Filter or search by the merge-key prefix used for the test.
4. Confirm that mapped fields contain the transformed values.
5. Run the pipeline again and confirm records are updated rather than duplicated.

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Troubleshooting

See the Airtable and MySQL pipeline guide for complete Airtable-to-MySQL, MySQL-to-Airtable, and Airtable-to-Airtable walkthroughs.