
## What can I automate with Airtable?
Luckily for us Airtable isn't just for data entry but comes with its own in built [automations](https://support.airtable.com/docs/automations-overview) that allow us to configure trigger-action workflows directly within Airtable. It also works well with [Zapier](https://zapier.com), [Make](https://make.com) and [n8n](https://n8n.io) (amongst others). Airtable also has an easy to use API that we can use to create custom automations.

## How much does Airtable cost? 
Airtable has a Free plan that includes 100 automation runs per month. The $20 a month (paid annually) plan allows for 50,000 automation runs per month.

## How can I automate with Airtable?
You can learn with our Airtable tutorials below or join the [Airtable Community](https://community.airtable.com/).


Airtable is a user friendly database-cross-spreadsheet web based application. If you've used Excel before the user interface will instantly feel familiar.

Airtable

## Overview
This automation uses Airtable to store a knowledge base and n8n as both the trigger and the source/backend. The questions and answers are displaying in Shortcuts. This isn't the quickest or, to be honest, most logical automation as it stands - but it could be the start of a whole knowledge system - with different sources and different triggers - hence the use of n8n to trigger as well as grabbing the dataset from Airtable.

[Knowledge System using automation and n8n, Pushcut, Airtable & Shortcuts. - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6xDXIdD7KI)

## How to improve your recall using n8n, Pushcut, Shortcuts and Airtable automation flow diagram

![How to improve your recall using n8n, Pushcut, Shortcuts and Airtable automation flow diagram](https://mermaid.ink/svg/pako:eNp9UcFqg0AQ_ZVli2AgofSU4KFQYvyBlh7KXia61aU6a2Z3Kan47x2NmrSHsMi-mXlvnsvrZG4LLRMZRZ1B45NOSV_pRiuZKHkEx2Atpt47kIFjrR0PBRNbMg3QeW9rSyP_YfuUZdnhInE6t1j8nWcvu326VbLv-yhSOJySoK3EWzpg3GHM30phG1yVBx9PN3dcZckzdPGCuAuG_PBL8QxW0x6x2YicLApPpiw1cf0spm3L-oE0z0_B_IykZf2N50AkfQraeUGAhW3EWBiLj4Due9rPvos5aR8I77FvjBbNxeI_uwDPSfhRNT_0-vZBWer7KjaQa9loasAUHHenUIhr1Aw5qS8lFfbMCy1r9aEw3pJMPqF2ei0hePt6xlwmnoKeSakBTrBZWC3gh7Vz3f8Cg0nVdQ)
```mermaidignore
graph TD

n8n(n8n)
pushcut(pushcut)
shortcuts(shortcuts)
airtable(airtable)

n8n -- cron trigger --> pushcut
pushcut -- trigger quiz --> shortcuts
shortcuts -- request random question/answer --> n8n
n8n -- return random question/answer --> shortcuts
n8n -- request question/answer dataset --> airtable
airtable -- get question/answer dataset --> n8n
```

## How to recreate this automation
### Resources
* [Github source](https://github.com/rymawby/tiny-automations-source/tree/main/improving-your-recall-with-automation)
* [n8n workflow](https://github.com/rymawby/tiny-automations-source/blob/main/improving-your-recall-with-automation/Knowledge_System.json)
* [Trivia Airtable](https://airtable.com/shrACk3hEub3dTD47)
* [Quiz shortcut](https://github.com/rymawby/tiny-automations-source/blob/main/improving-your-recall-with-automation/Quiz.shortcut)

### Step 1: The trigger
I wanted to view the questions on my phone once an hour every hour 9am-5pm. To do this is a 2 step process. I have n8n setup with a cron job to trigger on the hour during these hours and this calls Pushcut on my phone (via webhook).
![n8n trigger workflow](https://ry.d.pr/GAZ4Gd.png)

### Step 2: Run the Quiz shortcut on your phone
Pushcut opens the Quiz shortcut workflow. The Quiz shortcut then calls a webhook on n8n which get's a random question from the trivia Airtable dataset. The shortcut then displays the question before displaying the answer. The Quiz shortcut looks like this:
![Quiz shortcut](https://ry.d.pr/zBHtL6.png)

And the n8n workflow it calls via webhook:
![n8n get question workflow](https://ry.d.pr/B5HRo6.png)

### Step 3: The Airtable dataset
I just quickly imported some random questions I found on the [Open Trivia DB](https://opentdb.com/api.php?amount=10) for demo purposes. With Airtable you can actually import the JSON outputted.
![](https://ry.d.pr/QFcqVd.png)

## Future enhancements
* Different triggers - Shortcut automations, manually, location based etc.
* More sources - n8n could pull in more than just from Airtable, maybe from your Anki database, Readwise excerpts etc.
* Caching - n8n could cache the questions nightly so it runs quicker.


Create a knowledge system with n8n, airtable, pushcut and shortcuts.

Learn how to automate with Airtable

What can I automate with Airtable?

How much does Airtable cost?

How can I automate with Airtable?