examples

# NocoDB Dev — Worked Examples Practical end-to-end scenarios. Each example follows the discover → plan → apply → verify loop using MCP for discovery/verification and REST (`curl`) — or, on Cloud / licensed, the MCP `callTool` schema tools — for writes. The examples use the small `nocodb_api` wrapper from the **cli-reference** skill (`nocodb_api METHOD /path ['body']`, paths under `${NOCODB_URL}/api/v3`, token from `NOCODB_TOKEN`): ```bash nocodb_api() { local m="$1" p="$2" b="${3:-}" if [ -n "$b" ]; then curl -sS -X "$m" -H "xc-token: ${NOCODB_TOKEN}" -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d "$b" "${NOCODB_URL}/api/v3${p}" else curl -sS -X "$m" -H "xc-token: ${NOCODB_TOKEN}" -H "Content-Type: application/json" "${NOCODB_URL}/api/v3${p}" fi } ``` ## Quick Examples ### Create a table from scratch ```bash nocodb_api POST /meta/bases/$BASE_ID/tables '{ "title": "Tasks", "fields": [ { "title": "Title", "type": "SingleLineText" }, { "title": "Status", "type": "SingleSelect", "options": { "choices":[ {"title":"Todo"},{"title":"Doing"},{"title":"Done"} ]}}, { "title": "Due", "type": "Date" }, { "title": "Notes", "type": "LongText" } ] }' ``` ### Add a field to an existing table ```bash nocodb_api POST /meta/bases/$BASE_ID/tables/$TASKS_TABLE_ID/fields '{"title":"Priority","type":"Rating","options":{"max_value":3}}' ``` ### Rename a field ```bash nocodb_api PATCH /meta/bases/$BASE_ID/fields/$FIELD_ID '{"title":"Stars"}' ``` ### Build a Kanban view ```bash nocodb_api POST /meta/bases/$BASE_ID/tables/$TASKS_TABLE_ID/views '{ "title": "Board", "type": "kanban", "options": { "stack_by": { "field_id": "<statusFieldId>" } } }' ``` ### Add a Formula ```bash nocodb_api POST /meta/bases/$BASE_ID/tables/$TASKS_TABLE_ID/fields '{ "title": "Days Until Due", "type": "Formula", "options": { "formula": "DATETIME_DIFF({Due}, NOW(), \"days\")" } }' ``` ### Wire a Slack webhook on insert ```bash nocodb_api POST /meta/bases/$BASE_ID/tables/$TASKS_TABLE_ID/hooks '{ "title": "Slack on new task", "event": "record", "operation": ["insert"], "notification": { "type": "Slack", "payload": { "body": ":pencil: New task: {{record.Title}}" } }, "active": true }' ``` ### The same on Cloud / licensed, over MCP ``` mcp__plugin_nocodb-dev_nocodb__listTools category: "fields" mcp__plugin_nocodb-dev_nocodb__callTool name: "createField" arguments: { tableId: "<tasksTableId>", field: { title: "Priority", type: "Rating", options: { max_value: 3 } } } ``` ## Full Scenario Walkthroughs See `references/scenarios/`: - **crm-schema-buildout.md** — Build a CRM from zero: Customers, Orders (with link to Customers), Products (m2m to Orders), plus Lookup of customer name on Order and Rollup of order totals on Customer. - **ecommerce-relations.md** — E-commerce schema with many-to-many Products↔Orders, Lookup customer name onto Order line items, computed Order Total formula. ## Tips - **Always `getTableSchema` after every write.** Schema responses are your audit trail. - **Build relations bottom-up.** Create the "many" tables (Orders) before the "one" tables (Customers) only if the link is `bt`. For `hm` and `mm`, either order works. - **Lookups need links first.** Don't try to PATCH a Lookup config to point at a not-yet-existing link — NocoDB rejects with 400. - **System fields are write-once.** `CreatedTime` etc. populate themselves; don't try to seed them from imports. - **Webhook templates match field titles, case-sensitive.** Mistyped `{{record.<Field>}}` references render literally instead of erroring.