Alright, first things first, you need an API key to use Airtable's API. Head over to the Airtable Account page and find the API key under the "API" section. Copy that key.

Next, go to the Airtable API documentation at https://airtable.com/api. Pick the base you want to work with. You'll see the base ID at the top of the documentation page, usually looking something like appXXXXXXXXXXXXXX.

Now, figure out the table name and the record ID of the record you want to update. You can get the record ID through an API call or directly from the Airtable interface.

Make sure you have a programming environment ready. You can use tools like Postman for testing the API or write a script in your favorite language, like Python or JavaScript.

Build the endpoint URL using this format:

https://api.airtable.com/v0/{baseId}/{tableName}/{recordId}

Just replace {baseId}, {tableName}, and {recordId} with the actual IDs.

Set up the request headers to include your API key for authorization. Here's an example in JSON format:

{
  "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_API_KEY",
  "Content-Type": "application/json"
}

Create a JSON object with the fields you want to update. For example:

{
  "fields": {
    "FieldName1": "New Value",
    "FieldName2": "New Value"
  }
}

Replace FieldName1 and FieldName2 with the actual field names.

Use your preferred method to send a PATCH request to the API endpoint with the headers and body you prepared.

Example using curl in the command line:

curl -X PATCH "https://api.airtable.com/v0/{baseId}/{tableName}/{recordId}" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
  "fields": {
    "FieldName1": "New Value",
    "FieldName2": "New Value"
  }
}'

Example in Python with requests module:

import requests
import json

url = "https://api.airtable.com/v0/{baseId}/{tableName}/{recordId}"
headers = {
    "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_API_KEY",
    "Content-Type": "application/json"
}
data = {
    "fields": {
        "FieldName1": "New Value",
        "FieldName2": "New Value"
    }
}

response = requests.patch(url, headers=headers, data=json.dumps(data))
print(response.json())

Finally, check Airtable to see if the record has been updated. Also, take a look at the response from your API call to make sure it confirms the changes.