You give Codex a folder and a sentence and it works the whole thing, then shows you what it changed. Your Airtable base is exactly that kind of job, except it is not a folder, so the cleanup you keep meaning to run, normalize the company names, fill the empty categories, fix the tags, would write straight to a base your views and automations react to instantly.
Scratch pulls the base down as that folder. Codex edits every record on your laptop and reports back like a code change. The last 1%, what writes back, stays yours. Nothing reaches the live base until you approve it, row by row.
How it works
- Scratch pulls your base into files. A base or a single table becomes a folder on your laptop, one file per record, every field laid out to edit.
- Codex edits the records. Point Codex at the Scratch folder and describe the cleanup. It works the table the way it works a codebase, and you read the result like a pull request. Normalize every company name and fill the empty category cells from the description. Codex works the files, never the live base.
- You review every diff and publish. Scratch shows each changed field beside the original, word by word. Approve what holds up, and Scratch pushes only those records back through the Airtable API.
What people use it for
The cleanup that never happens because doing it by hand means opening every row:
- Normalize inconsistent company or contact names across the table.
- Fill empty category, status, or tag cells by reading each record's own notes.
- Cut every long summary down to a single line.
- Turn freehand text into the exact single-select your views expect, without inventing new options.
- Backfill the linked-record references someone left blank.
Run it on a few records to feel the loop, then turn it loose on the other 5,000.
Why not an MCP server?
An Airtable MCP server or extension wires Codex straight to your live base. One pass rewrites every record at once, and your views, automations, and interfaces all react before you have seen a thing.
Scratch gives Codex the same full read and write access against a local copy instead. The write-back is lifted out and handed to you. Codex can change anything; only you can commit it. On a base your team runs on, that gap is the whole point.
What Codex edits in Airtable
- Long-text and rich-text fields
- Single-line text, including titles
- Single-select and multi-select tags
- Date, currency, and number fields
- Attachment captions and linked-record references
Formulas, rollups, lookups, autonumber fields, and the created and last-modified timestamps pass through untouched. Validators read your option sets, so Codex cannot coin a select value that would break a view. The full list lives on Scratch for Airtable.
Questions people ask
Is this an MCP server or an Airtable extension?
Neither. An MCP or an extension hands Codex the write button. Scratch keeps it. Codex gets the same access, and writing back is a separate step you approve, one record at a time.
Will it break my formulas, views, or automations?
No. Formulas, rollups, lookups, and autonumber fields are never editable, automations are never exposed, and validators stop Codex from inventing a select value that would knock out a view.
Can I roll a change back after it writes?
Yes. Scratch keeps the original beside the rewrite, so every written record reverts per row. You decide which version stays.
How is this different from a CSV import or a script?
A CSV import and a script both write straight to the live base with no diff and no per-record approval, and a find-and-replace does only what you spelled out. Codex handles the records a rule cannot, and Scratch still holds every change for review before it lands.
Can it run across a 5,000-row table?
Yes, that is the use case. Run it on a handful of records to feel the flow, then point it at the whole table.
Do I need to be technical?
Codex lives in the terminal, so if you run it already, you are set. If a terminal is not where you want to be, the Claude desktop app runs the same Scratch loop with a more familiar surface.
See it on your own base
The fastest way to trust it is to watch it run on your data. See it run on your Airtable base →, or download Scratch free and take the first pass yourself.