I'm using Airtable's MCP server to let an AI agent (Claude Code) build and manage a base on my behalf — creating tables, fields, records, linked relationships, the works. The API is excellent for all of this. But I've hit what feels like a showstopper: there is no way to programmatically configure view sorting, filtering, grouping, field visibility, or field order.
The result is that my AI agent creates a beautifully structured base with sequenced milestones, prioritised tasks, linked goals — and when I open Airtable, I see records in an arbitrary internal order that bears no relation to creation sequence or any other logic. Every view needs manual sort/filter configuration before the data is usable.
I tried the obvious workaround of deleting and recreating records in the desired order. Doesn't work — the UI still displays them in an opaque internal order. I've added Sequence fields to every table so the correct order is encoded in the data, but there's no way to tell a view to sort by that field without opening the UI.
This feels like an increasingly significant gap given Airtable's own investment in API and MCP tooling. The whole point of programmatic base management is that an external system handles the structure and the human consumes it visually. Having to manually configure every view after the base is built defeats much of that value.
Has anyone else run into this? Specifically:
1. Is there any undocumented API capability for view configuration I'm missing?
2. Has anyone built a workaround — browser automation, Airtable scripting extension, or similar?
3. For those using Airtable as a programmatic data surface (API, MCP, automations), how do you handle the view setup step?
I've submitted a feature request for a PATCH endpoint on view configuration. Would be interested to know if others have done the same or found creative solutions.
