SeaTable vs Smartsheet API + MCP

SeaTable

API tokens are limited to one base and to read-only or read-write, and the official MCP server marks every tool as read-only or destructive. The Free plan allows 3,000 API calls a month in total, and base calls are capped at 200 a minute. The status page showed the base API degraded for 0.77 per cent of 30 days.

Smartsheet API + MCP

The REST API has a public OpenAPI 3.0.3 spec with 187 operations, Markdown docs and llms.txt, and the hosted MCP server loads its 83 documented tools by toolset. API access needs a Business plan or higher, and the status page lists eight incidents marked major or critical between 15 July and 21 September 2026.

SeaTable

1. Create an API token for the one base with read-only permission unless writes are needed, then exchange it at /api/v2.1/dtable/app-access-token/ for a Base-Token
2. Renew the Base-Token before it expires after 3 days, and send it as Authorization: Bearer to /api-gateway/api/v2/dtables/{base_uuid}/
3. Read x-ratelimit-remaining and x-ratelimit-reset on every base call. SeaTable Cloud allows 200 base calls a minute and answers 429 with no body
4. Batch writes to save the monthly quota. One call appends or updates up to 1,000 rows over REST and 100 over MCP
5. Over MCP, prefer update_rows and delete_rows to query_sql, which can run UPDATE and DELETE, and call get_schema before writing

Smartsheet API + MCP

1. Send writes to one sheet one at a time. Parallel updates with the same token return error 4004
2. Batch row changes, up to 500 rows a call, and add allowPartialSuccess=true to get per-row failures instead of a failed batch
3. On error 4003 (HTTP 429) wait at least 60 seconds before retrying. The limit is 300 requests a minute per token, 30 for attachments and cell history
4. Through MCP, call get_columns before filtering or writing. Column names are case-sensitive and guesses fail validation
5. Use the regional host that matches the account (api.smartsheet.com, .eu or .au). Tokens don't work across regions