Search Airtable Tool

​

What it does

1. Free-text search — pass a searchTerm + searchFields to match a case-insensitive substring across named fields (the tool builds an OR(SEARCH(...)) formula for you)
2. Formula filter — pass a raw filterByFormula for full Airtable formula-language filtering (AND/OR logic, date math, linked-record filtering, etc.)
3. Plain list — omit filters and just list records, optionally scoped to a view, with sort/fields/maxRecords applied

​

Key features

• Three complementary query modes covering quick lookups through complex structured filters
• Case-insensitive free-text search across any set of fields
• Full Airtable formula language support for structured filters
• Sort by one or more fields, ascending or descending
• Scope results to a named view (honors the view’s own filter/sort)
• Return only specific fields to keep responses small
• Offset-based pagination via nextOffset

​

Parameters

​

Common use cases

​

Free-text find

baseId: "appXXXXXXXXXXXXXX"
tableIdOrName: "Contacts"
searchTerm: "acme"
searchFields: ["Name", "Company Name", "Email"]

​

Structured filter with formula

tableIdOrName: "Deals"
filterByFormula: "AND({Stage}='Negotiation', {Close Date} > TODAY())"
fields: ["Name", "Amount", "Owner", "Close Date"]
sort: [{ "field": "Amount", "direction": "desc" }]
maxRecords: 25

​

Scope to a view

tableIdOrName: "Tasks"
view: "My Team — Open"
maxRecords: 50

​

Paginate a large table

tableIdOrName: "Orders"
pageSize: 100

tableIdOrName: "Orders"
pageSize: 100
offset: "<value from previous response's nextOffset>"

​

What you get back

• records[] — each with id, createdTime, and a fields object keyed by field name
• count — number of records in this response
• hasMore — boolean indicating whether more records are available
• nextOffset — opaque cursor to pass as offset on the next call (null when hasMore is false)

​

Best practices

• Prefer table IDs over names when the table might be renamed — names work but break on rename; IDs are stable
• Use fields aggressively — limiting the response to 3–5 fields massively reduces token usage
• For AND/OR logic across fields, use filterByFormula — searchTerm only supports OR across fields with a single substring
• For large tables, set a sensible maxRecords — the default paginates through the entire table which can be thousands of calls
• Scope to a view when users have already built a saved filter in Airtable — agents don’t need to recreate the logic

​

Troubleshooting

• Pass the list of fields to search within: searchFields: ["Name", "Description"]
• Or use filterByFormula instead for more complex queries

• Wrap field names in {}: {Status}='Active', not Status='Active'
• Escape single quotes inside string literals: \'
• Validate the formula in Airtable’s formula field playground before passing it in

• Call airtable_get_schema with the baseId to confirm exact table and field names
• Field names are case-sensitive

• Views apply their own filter and sort on top of yours — if the view already hides records, your filter can only narrow further
• Drop the view parameter to query the full table

​

Related tools

• Get Airtable Schema — discover baseId, tableIdOrName, and field names
• Manage Airtable Records — create, update, or delete records found via this tool