Notion MCP Server

[!NOTE]

We’ve introduced Notion MCP, a remote MCP server with the following improvements:

• Easy installation via standard OAuth. No need to fiddle with JSON or API tokens anymore.
• Powerful tools tailored to AI agents, including editing pages in Markdown. These tools are designed with optimized token consumption in mind.

Learn more and get started at Notion MCP documentation.

We are prioritizing, and only providing active support for, Notion MCP (remote). As a result:

• We may sunset this local MCP server repository in the future.
• Issues and pull requests here are not actively monitored.
• Please do not file issues relating to the remote MCP here; instead, contact Notion support.

This project implements an MCP server for the Notion API.

⚠️ Version 2.0.0 breaking changes

Version 2.0.0 migrates to the Notion API 2025-09-03 which introduces data sources as the primary abstraction for databases.

What changed

Removed tools (3):

• post-database-query - replaced by query-data-source
• update-a-database - replaced by update-a-data-source
• create-a-database - replaced by create-a-data-source

New tools (7):

• query-data-source - Query a data source (database) with filters and sorts
• retrieve-a-data-source - Get metadata and schema for a data source
• update-a-data-source - Update data source properties
• create-a-data-source - Create a new data source
• list-data-source-templates - List available templates in a data source
• move-page - Move a page to a different parent location
• retrieve-a-database - Get database metadata including its data source IDs

Parameter changes:

• All database operations now use data_source_id instead of database_id
• Search filter values changed from ["page", "database"] to ["page", "data_source"]
• Page creation now supports both page_id and database_id parents (for data sources)

Do I need to migrate?

No code changes required. MCP tools are discovered automatically when the server starts. When you upgrade to v2.0.0, AI clients will automatically see the new tool names and parameters. The old database tools are no longer available.

If you have hardcoded tool names or prompts that reference the old database tools, update them to use the new data source tools:

Note: retrieve-a-database is still available and returns database metadata including the list of data source IDs. Use retrieve-a-data-source to get the schema and properties of a specific data source.

Total tools now: 22 (was 19 in v1.x)

Installation

1. Setting up integration in Notion

Go to https://www.notion.so/profile/integrations and create a new internal integration or select an existing one.

While we limit the scope of Notion API's exposed (for example, you will not be able to delete databases via MCP), there is a non-zero risk to workspace data by exposing it to LLMs. Security-conscious users may want to further configure the Integration's Capabilities.

For example, you can create a read-only integration token by giving only "Read content" access from the "Configuration" tab:

2. Connecting content to integration

Ensure relevant pages and databases are connected to your integration.

To do this, visit the Access tab in your internal integration settings. Edit access and select the pages you'd like to use.

Alternatively, you can grant page access individually. You'll need to visit the target page, and click on the 3 dots, and select "Connect to integration".

3. Adding MCP config to your client

Using npm

Cursor & Claude

Add the following to your .cursor/mcp.json or claude_desktop_config.json (MacOS: ~/Library/Application\ Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json)

Option 1: Using NOTION_TOKEN (recommended)

jsonCopy code
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "notionApi": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@notionhq/notion-mcp-server"],
      "env": {
        "NOTION_TOKEN": "ntn_****"
      }
    }
  }
}

Option 2: Using OPENAPI_MCP_HEADERS (for advanced use cases)

jsonCopy code
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "notionApi": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@notionhq/notion-mcp-server"],
      "env": {
        "OPENAPI_MCP_HEADERS": "{\"Authorization\": \"Bearer ntn_****\", \"Notion-Version\": \"2025-09-03\" }"
      }
    }
  }
}

Zed

Add the following to your settings.json

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{
  "context_servers": {
    "some-context-server": {
      "command": {
        "path": "npx",
        "args": ["-y", "@notionhq/notion-mcp-server"],
        "env": {
          "OPENAPI_MCP_HEADERS": "{\"Authorization\": \"Bearer ntn_****\", \"Notion-Version\": \"2025-09-03\" }"
        }
      },
      "settings": {}
    }
  }
}

GitHub Copilot CLI

Use the Copilot CLI to interactively add the MCP server:

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/mcp add

Alternatively, create or edit the configuration file ~/.copilot/mcp-config.json and add:

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{
  "mcpServers": {
    "notionApi": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@notionhq/notion-mcp-server"],
      "env": {
        "NOTION_TOKEN": "ntn_****"
      }
    }
  }
}

For more information, see the Copilot CLI documentation.

Using Docker

There are two options for running the MCP server with Docker:

Option 1: Using the official Docker Hub image

Add the following to your .cursor/mcp.json or claude_desktop_config.json

Using NOTION_TOKEN (recommended):

jsonCopy code
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "notionApi": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": [
        "run",
        "--rm",
        "-i",
        "-e", "NOTION_TOKEN",
        "mcp/notion"
      ],
      "env": {
        "NOTION_TOKEN": "ntn_****"
      }
    }
  }
}

Using OPENAPI_MCP_HEADERS (for advanced use cases):

jsonCopy code
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "notionApi": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": [
        "run",
        "--rm",
        "-i",
        "-e", "OPENAPI_MCP_HEADERS",
        "mcp/notion"
      ],
      "env": {
        "OPENAPI_MCP_HEADERS": "{\"Authorization\":\"Bearer ntn_****\",\"Notion-Version\":\"2025-09-03\"}"
      }
    }
  }
}

This approach:

• Uses the official Docker Hub image
• Properly handles JSON escaping via environment variables
• Provides a more reliable configuration method

Option 2: Building the Docker image locally

You can also build and run the Docker image locally. First, build the Docker image:

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docker compose build

Then, add the following to your .cursor/mcp.json or claude_desktop_config.json

Using NOTION_TOKEN (recommended):

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{
  "mcpServers": {
    "notionApi": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": [
        "run",
        "--rm",
        "-i",
        "-e",
        "NOTION_TOKEN=ntn_****",
        "notion-mcp-server"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Using OPENAPI_MCP_HEADERS (for advanced use cases):

jsonCopy code
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "notionApi": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": [
        "run",
        "--rm",
        "-i",
        "-e",
        "OPENAPI_MCP_HEADERS={\"Authorization\": \"Bearer ntn_****\", \"Notion-Version\": \"2025-09-03\"}",
        "notion-mcp-server"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Don't forget to replace ntn_**** with your integration secret. Find it from your integration configuration tab:

Transport options

The Notion MCP Server supports two transport modes:

STDIO transport (default)

The default transport mode uses standard input/output for communication. This is the standard MCP transport used by most clients like Claude Desktop.

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# Run with default stdio transport
npx @notionhq/notion-mcp-server

# Or explicitly specify stdio
npx @notionhq/notion-mcp-server --transport stdio

Streamable HTTP transport

For web-based applications or clients that prefer HTTP communication, you can use the Streamable HTTP transport:

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# Run with Streamable HTTP transport on port 3000 (default)
npx @notionhq/notion-mcp-server --transport http

# Run on a custom port
npx @notionhq/notion-mcp-server --transport http --port 8080

# Run with a custom authentication token
npx @notionhq/notion-mcp-server --transport http --auth-token "your-secret-token"

When using Streamable HTTP transport, the server will be available at http://0.0.0.0:<port>/mcp.

Authentication

The Streamable HTTP transport requires bearer token authentication for security. You have three options:

Option 1: Auto-generated token (only for development)

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npx @notionhq/notion-mcp-server --transport http

The server will generate a secure random token and display it in the console:

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Generated auth token: a1b2c3d4e5f6789abcdef0123456789abcdef0123456789abcdef0123456789ab
Use this token in the Authorization header: Bearer a1b2c3d4e5f6789abcdef0123456789abcdef0123456789abcdef0123456789ab

Option 2: Custom token via command line (recommended for production)

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npx @notionhq/notion-mcp-server --transport http --auth-token "your-secret-token"

Option 3: Custom token via environment variable (recommended for production)

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AUTH_TOKEN="your-secret-token" npx @notionhq/notion-mcp-server --transport http

The command line argument --auth-token takes precedence over the AUTH_TOKEN environment variable if both are provided.

Making HTTP requests

All requests to the Streamable HTTP transport must include the bearer token in the Authorization header:

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# Example request
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer your-token-here" \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     -H "mcp-session-id: your-session-id" \
     -d '{"jsonrpc": "2.0", "method": "initialize", "params": {}, "id": 1}' \
     http://localhost:3000/mcp

Note: Make sure to set either the NOTION_TOKEN environment variable (recommended) or the OPENAPI_MCP_HEADERS environment variable with your Notion integration token when using either transport mode.

Examples

1. Using the following instruction

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Comment "Hello MCP" on page "Getting started"

AI will correctly plan two API calls, v1/search and v1/comments, to achieve the task

1. Similarly, the following instruction will result in a new page named "Notion MCP" added to parent page "Development"

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Add a page titled "Notion MCP" to page "Development"

1. You may also reference content ID directly

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Get the content of page 1a6b35e6e67f802fa7e1d27686f017f2

Development

Build & test

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npm run build
npm test

Execute

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npx -y --prefix /path/to/local/notion-mcp-server @notionhq/notion-mcp-server

Testing changes locally in Cursor:

1. Run npm link command from repository root to create a machine-global symlink to the notion-mcp-server package.
2. Merge the configuration snippet below into Cursor's mcp.json (or other MCP client you want to test with).
3. (Cleanup) run npm unlink from repository root.

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{
  "mcpServers": {
    "notion-local-package": {
      "command": "notion-mcp-server",
      "env": {
        "NOTION_TOKEN": "ntn_..."
      }
    }
  }
}

Publish

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npm login
npm publish --access public