A: 1. It should be pretty straightforward! You can learn more about our API in our help center. https://support.getgrist.com/rest-api/ We'd be happy to assist if you need extra guidance. Sounds like a cool project!

2. Yes, there are API calls to extract data from tables. It is fine to make those calls from scripts. There are some limits on the volume of api requests, see https://support.getgrist.com/limits/#document-availability

3. I hear your concern re: security risks with link sharing. One unique feature of Grist is that view-only link sharing can be further restricted by using Grist's access rules to set specific URL parameters that determine which tables, columns, or rows are shown when a specific link is shared. If the URL parameter is erased from the URL in an attempt to discover the unrestricted document, the document is not readable. You can learn more about Link Keys in our help center. https://support.getgrist.com/access-rules/#link-keys
Note that it is possible to set conditions based on a user's login email for Grist, in which case access can be restricted to users who are properly signed into Grist, even if they have a free account and are not a member of your team. I am not sure if this solves the problem for your use case and would love to hear more.

4. We have it on our roadmap to make it easier to embed widgets into webpages: https://github.com/gristlabs/grist-core/issues/66

5. It isn't currently possible to create in-app notifications in Grist for your team. That's a great idea, though!

6. Yes! Grist is perfectly built for this use case. You may create linked views of data in multiple widgets that draw on data from multiple tables. Within each widget, you may filter different columns, hide other columns, and reorganize how data is presented. Deleting a row (or record) in any view would affect the 'master' table, and vice versa. This makes it possible to do data entry and cleaning in different views of the same data, in layouts built with a particular workflow in mind.