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New Beta: New API authentication methods, endpoints, and public API docs

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SeanKeenan
Airtable Employee
Airtable Employee

Hi everyone,

For those I haven’t met, I’m Sean, an engineer on the Airtable API team.

Today our team is excited to announce the public beta (it’s public – so no need to sign up!) of several new API authentication features to make our API more secure for all our users. Bundled with them are the (long-requested!) metadata API, comments API, and webhook API.

And one more feature (my personal favorite): a new publicly accessible API docs site to learn about all of these in more exciting detail! Airtable Web API

  • API authentication: personal access tokens
  • API authentication: OAuth for Integrations
    • Register an integration to build using OAuth 2.0: https://airtable.com/create/oauth.
    • Users can authorize third-party integrations with OAuth for a secure setup and granular controls.
  • New API endpoints
    • As part of either of the authentication methods above, we have several new API endpoints and functionality, including the metadata API - please read our changelog for more info on these endpoints. Airtable Web API
  • Enterprise Admin features
    • Enterprise admins can create service accounts that can utilize both of the new API authentication methods and associated API endpoints described above. This feature will help ensure continuity for scripts and integrations.
    • Admins will also be able to restrict whether and which OAuth third-party integrations can be used in their enterprises.

Additionally, we plan to announce a deprecation timeline for user API keys when these more secure authentication methods (personal access tokens and OAuth integrations) graduate from public beta to general availability. Per our deprecation guidelines, there will be a notice period of at least 12 months (from the date of that future announcement) before the deprecation is enforced.

This public beta is just the beginning! We plan on continuing to add new features and update existing ones based on your feedback.

Learn more from our updated API docs and then try it for yourself — and, if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask here,

Sean, on behalf of the Airtable API Team

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