From 91c46a0ff1504ef4916239140722864ebce7901b Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Adam Jones <domdomegg+git@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 3 Feb 2025 21:56:45 +0000
Subject: [PATCH] feat: Prefer environment variable to command line

Easier to standardise configuration and tool setup this way
---
 README.md              | 8 +++++---
 src/airtableService.ts | 2 +-
 src/index.ts           | 4 ++++
 3 files changed, 10 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)

diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 1bb04ec..2388412 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -15,9 +15,11 @@ To use this server with the Claude Desktop app, add the following configuration
       "command": "npx",
       "args": [
         "-y",
-        "airtable-mcp-server",
-        "pat123.abc123"
-      ]
+        "airtable-mcp-server"
+      ],
+      "env": {
+        "AIRTABLE_API_KEY": "pat123.abc123"
+      }
     }
   }
 }
diff --git a/src/airtableService.ts b/src/airtableService.ts
index 637e03a..bdbc612 100644
--- a/src/airtableService.ts
+++ b/src/airtableService.ts
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ export class AirtableService implements IAirtableService {
     fetch: typeof nodeFetch = nodeFetch,
   ) {
     if (!apiKey) {
-      throw new Error('No API key set. Either:\n1. Pass it in as a command-line argument, for example `airtable-mcp-server <API_KEY>`\n2. Set it in the `AIRTABLE_API_KEY` environment variable');
+      throw new Error('airtable-mcp-server: No API key provided. Set it in the `AIRTABLE_API_KEY` environment variable');
     }
 
     this.apiKey = apiKey;
diff --git a/src/index.ts b/src/index.ts
index 3f2b20f..be29c43 100644
--- a/src/index.ts
+++ b/src/index.ts
@@ -6,6 +6,10 @@ import { AirtableMCPServer } from './mcpServer.js';
 
 const main = async () => {
   const apiKey = process.argv.slice(2)[0];
+  if (apiKey) {
+    // Deprecation warning
+    console.warn('warning (airtable-mcp-server): Passing in an API key as a command-line argument is deprecated and may be removed in a future version. Instead, set the `AIRTABLE_API_KEY` environment variable. See https://github.com/domdomegg/airtable-mcp-server/blob/master/README.md#usage for an example with Claude Desktop.');
+  }
   const airtableService = new AirtableService(apiKey);
   const server = new AirtableMCPServer(airtableService);
   const transport = new StdioServerTransport();