How it works

The Notion connector uses the Notion search API to fetch all pages that the connector has access to within a workspace. For follow up indexing runs, the connector only retrieves pages that have been updated since the last indexing attempt. Indexing is configured to run every 10 minutes, so page updates should appear within 10 minutes.

Setting up

Authorization

In order to authorize Danswer to connect to your Notion workspace, you’ll need to create a new integration in Notion, which will then provide you with a secret token.

These steps are pulled from this Notion guide which you can also follow.

Step 1: Create an integration

  1. Visit https://www.notion.com/my-integrations in your browser.
  2. Click the + New integration button.
  3. Name the integration (something like “Danswer” could work).
  4. Select “Read content” as the only capability required for Danswer.
  5. Click Submit to create the integration.

On the next page, you’ll find your Notion integration token, also called an API key. You’ll need this token to configure Danswer to index Notion, so make a copy of it.

The integration has been added to the workspace, so any member can share pages and databases with it. There’s no requirement to be an Admin to share information with an integration.

Notion create integration

Step 2: Share pages/databases with your integration

Now that you’ve created an integration, you need to grant it access to Notion pages/databases. To keep your information secure, integrations don’t have access to any pages or databases in the workspace at first. You must share specific pages with an integration in order for Danswer to access those pages.

To share a page/database with your integration:

  1. Go to the page/database in your workspace.
  2. Click the ••• on the top right corner of the page.
  3. Scroll to the bottom of the pop-up and click Add connections.
  4. Search for and select the new integration in the Search for connections... menu.
  5. If you’ve added a page, all child pages also become accesssible to Danswer. If you’ve added a database, all rows (and their children) become accessible to Danswer.

Notion add connection

Once you’ve granted access to a page/database, you can start configuring Danswer to index those databases.

Indexing

  1. Navigate to the Admin Dashboard and select the Notion connector.
  2. In Step 1, provide the Integration Token Secret you obtained in the “Authorization” steps above:

Notion connector step 1 view

  1. Click the Connect button! Your content will then be pulled into Danswer every 10 minutes.

Notion connector step 2 view

Note - As mentioned, the Notion connector currently indexes everything it has access to. If you want to limit specific content being indexed, simply unshare the database from Notion with the integration.