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Installation

This guide covers installing Pydantic Airtable and setting up your development environment.

Requirements

  • Python 3.8 or higher
  • pip package manager
  • An Airtable account with API access

Installation Methods

pip install pydantic-airtable

From requirements.txt

Add to your requirements.txt:

pydantic-airtable>=1.0.0

Then install:

pip install -r requirements.txt

Development Installation

For contributing or local development:

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/pydantic-airtable/pydantic-airtable.git
cd pydantic-airtable

# Install in development mode
pip install -e .

# Install with development dependencies
pip install -r requirements-dev.txt

Dependencies

Pydantic Airtable automatically installs these dependencies:

Package Version Purpose
pydantic >=2.0.0 Data validation and serialization
requests >=2.28.0 HTTP client for Airtable API
python-dateutil >=2.8.0 Date/time parsing utilities
python-dotenv >=1.0.0 Environment variable loading

Verifying Installation

After installation, verify everything works:

# Test import
import pydantic_airtable
print(f"✅ Pydantic Airtable v{pydantic_airtable.__version__} installed successfully!")

# Test core components
from pydantic_airtable import (
    airtable_model,
    configure_from_env,
    AirtableConfig,
    AirtableFieldType
)
print("✅ All core components imported successfully!")

Run this as a script:

python -c "
import pydantic_airtable
print(f'✅ Pydantic Airtable v{pydantic_airtable.__version__} installed!')
from pydantic_airtable import airtable_model, configure_from_env
print('✅ All components ready!')
"

Getting Airtable Credentials

Personal Access Token (PAT)

  1. Go to Airtable Developer Hub
  2. Click "Create new token"
  3. Give it a descriptive name (e.g., "pydantic-airtable-dev")
  4. Select the required scopes:
    • data.records:read - Read records
    • data.records:write - Create, update, delete records
    • schema.bases:read - Read base schema
    • schema.bases:write - Create tables
  5. Select the bases you want to access
  6. Copy your token (starts with pat_)

Token Security

Never commit your Personal Access Token to version control. Always use environment variables or .env files.

Base ID

Find your Base ID in the Airtable URL:

https://airtable.com/appXXXXXXXXXXXXXX/...
                     ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
                     This is your Base ID

Or from the Airtable API documentation for your base.

Environment Setup

Create a .env file in your project root:

# Required
AIRTABLE_ACCESS_TOKEN=pat_your_personal_access_token_here
AIRTABLE_BASE_ID=appYourBaseIdHere

# Optional
AIRTABLE_TABLE_NAME=DefaultTableName

Git Ignore

Add .env to your .gitignore file to prevent accidentally committing credentials: 

# .gitignore
.env
.env.local
.env.*.local

Option 2: Environment Variables

Set variables directly in your shell:

export AIRTABLE_ACCESS_TOKEN="pat_your_token"
export AIRTABLE_BASE_ID="appYourBaseId"

$env:AIRTABLE_ACCESS_TOKEN = "pat_your_token"
$env:AIRTABLE_BASE_ID = "appYourBaseId"

set AIRTABLE_ACCESS_TOKEN=pat_your_token
set AIRTABLE_BASE_ID=appYourBaseId

Troubleshooting

Common Installation Issues

ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'pydantic'

Solution: Ensure you have Pydantic v2 installed: 

pip install --upgrade pydantic>=2.0.0

ImportError: cannot import name 'BaseModel'

Solution: You may have Pydantic v1 installed. Upgrade to v2: 

pip uninstall pydantic
pip install pydantic>=2.0.0

ConfigurationError: Airtable Personal Access Token is required

Solution: Set your environment variables or create a .env file: 

export AIRTABLE_ACCESS_TOKEN="pat_your_token"
export AIRTABLE_BASE_ID="appYourBaseId"

Invalid access token format

Solution: Personal Access Tokens must start with pat_. Make sure you're using a PAT, not a legacy API key.

Next Steps

Now that you have Pydantic Airtable installed:

  1. Quick Start - Create your first model and interact with Airtable
  2. Configuration - Learn about all configuration options
  3. Examples - See real-world usage examples