Builds

What does a build do?

A build reads your Airtable base schema and creates (or recreates) a PostgreSQL database from it.

During a build, Effortless Bases:

1. Reads all tables and fields from your Airtable base
2. Maps Airtable field types to PostgreSQL column types
3. Creates the database schema (tables, columns, foreign keys)
4. Applies row-level security (RLS) policies
5. Populates the database with your current Airtable data

When to build

Build when:

• You're setting up a test/branch base for the first time
• You've made schema changes in Airtable and want to apply them to a test base
• You're iterating on your schema and don't mind data being reset

Do not build when:

• Your production base has real data in it — use Sync instead

What a rebuild does

Rebuilding an existing base drops and recreates the database schema. Any data that was in the database (but not in Airtable) will be lost.

This is fine for test bases where the Airtable data is the source of truth. It is not safe for production databases that have been modified by your app.

Build duration

Build time depends on the number of tables and records in your Airtable base. Most bases build in under 60 seconds. Very large bases (many tables, thousands of records) may take longer.

Next steps

• Sync — apply schema changes to production without losing data
• Bases & Branches — understand the difference between production bases and test branches