Field Permissions Down to the Single Column

Tables are rarely all-or-nothing. The Projects table a client should see also holds your internal margin, the notes from the last account review, and a status field only your team should move.

Field permissions cut at the column level, so the table can be shared without the columns being shared.

What it does

Every field has four switches, set per role:

• View: the field appears in tables, on cards, and on the record detail page
• Create: the field appears on the create form
• Edit: the field appears on the edit form
• Required: the field must be filled in on whichever of those forms it appears on

View, create and edit are independent of each other, and that is the point. A field can be editable without being visible in the table, or appear on the create form but never be editable afterwards, which is the natural shape for something like a submitted-by reference. Required is the one that depends on the others: it only applies to a field people can write, so it switches off with the last of create and edit.

A field with all four switches off is not merely hidden in the interface: its value is not sent to the browser. The exceptions are the fields a layout is built on, which the portal is already showing anyway: the record's name field, and the gallery cover, kanban column and calendar date fields.

Why it matters

This is what makes an Airtable base safe to expose. Most bases were built for internal use, so the sensitive material is not in a separate table, it is a column three across from something you want people to see.

It also removes the usual workaround. Without field-level control you end up duplicating tables, maintaining a "client-safe" copy, and syncing between them. Here the base stays as it is and the portal shows a subset.

New fields start closed

That is deliberate, and it is the behavior you want the day someone adds an Internal Notes column at 5pm. The portal's Access tab flags fields it has no settings for, and can turn them on in one click when you do want them.

How it works

Set the switches on the Access tab, per table, per role. Fields Airtable computes, or will not accept a write to, have their write switches grayed out: a formula or rollup can be shown but never edited, which the field types reference covers in full.

The field permissions guide has the detail, including how required fields behave on the sign-up form.

Who it is for

Anyone sharing a table that was not designed to be shared. It is the load-bearing feature for contractor compliance, insurance portals, and client portals, where one table holds both what the client submits and what you record about it.