Airtable Help needed

Questions
1

hey guys, I am trying to set up an AI content automation workflow it airtable. My idea is to upload reference pictures in the tables and send them throug N8N to chat gpt to analyze the picture and prompt scripts + images and fill data back in Airtable.
Unfortunately im already failing at the start to retrieve the Image URL from my Airtable. i uploaded the image via cloudinary in the table (attachment + URL) if i try to get record in N8N. It doesnt input the image URL only the temporary URL from airtable.
when i try to access the URL: {{ $json[‘Reference Image’][0].url }} it also says its undefined.. even though i get an input with a URL.
tried some other versions with code and http nodes.. nothing worked so far…
can someone help me to set this up please? If you have better ideas how to do this im open aswell.
thanks so much. (im new here)

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2

Hey Moe87! The issue you’re facing is that Airtable’s attachment URLs are temporary and expire quickly. Here are a few solutions to get permanent image URLs for your AI workflow:

**Option 1: Use the HTTP Request node to download and re-upload**

• After getting the record from Airtable, use an HTTP Request node to download the image using the temporary URL

• Then upload it to a permanent storage service (like Cloudinary, AWS S3, or similar)

• Store the permanent URL back in Airtable

**Option 2: Check your Cloudinary setup**

If you mentioned you’re already using Cloudinary, make sure you’re storing the Cloudinary URL in a separate text field in Airtable, not just the attachment field. The attachment field will always give you Airtable’s temporary URLs.

**Quick debugging tip:**

Check what data you’re actually getting by adding a “Sticky Note” node after your Airtable node to see the exact structure. The expression should be `{{ $json[“Reference Image”][0].url }}` but first verify the field name and array structure.

There are also some great templates available like the [n8ntemplates.dev](Airtable Image Attachment Auto-Upload Workflow | N8N Templates) workflow for converting image URLs to Airtable attachments that might give you some inspiration for the reverse process!

Would love to see your workflow JSON if you can share it - that would help pinpoint the exact issue! :rocket: