Notion MCP server for AI agents

This Node.js server provides a bridge between AI assistants like Claude and your Notion workspace through the Model Context Protocol (MCP). It enables AI assistants to search databases, create pages, manage content blocks, and perform other actions directly within your Notion workspace.

Prerequisites

Before setting up the Notion MCP server, you'll need:

Node.js (version 14 or higher)
A Notion account
Claude Desktop app (if using with Claude)

Getting Your Notion API Key

Go to https://www.notion.so/my-integrations
Click the blue "+ New integration" button
Fill in the details:
- Name: Choose a name like "Claude Assistant" or "AI Helper"
- Logo: Optional
- Associated workspace: Select your Notion workspace
Click "Submit"
On the next page, find the "Internal Integration Token" section
Click "Show" and copy the token (it starts with secret_)

Setting Up the Server

Download and Install

Open a command prompt or terminal

Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/Sjotie/notionMCP/

Navigate to the project directory:
```
cd notionMCP
```
Install dependencies:
```
npm install
```

Connecting to Notion Pages

For security, Notion requires you to explicitly grant access to each page or database:

Open Notion and navigate to a page or database you want the AI to access
Click the "•••" (three dots) in the top-right corner
Select "Add connections"
Find and select the integration you created earlier
Repeat for any other pages or databases you want to make accessible

Connecting to Claude Desktop

Locate your Claude Desktop configuration file:
- Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
- Mac: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

Open the file in a text editor. If it doesn't exist, create it with the following content:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "notion": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": [
        "C:\\path\\to\\notion-mcp-server\\server.js"
      ],
      "env": {
        "NOTION_API_KEY": "your_notion_api_key_here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Replace:
- C:\\path\\to\\notion-mcp-server\\server.js with the actual path to the server.js file
  - Windows: Use double backslashes (\\) in the path
  - Mac: Use forward slashes (/)
- your_notion_api_key_here with your Notion API key
Save the file and restart Claude Desktop

Testing the Connection

Start a new conversation in Claude
Ask Claude to interact with your Notion workspace, for example:
- "Show me a list of my Notion databases"
- "Create a new page in my Tasks database with title 'Test Task'"

Available Tools

The server provides these tools to AI assistants:

list-databases: View all accessible databases
query-database: Get entries from a database
create-page: Add a new page to a database
update-page: Modify an existing page
create-database: Create a new database
update-database: Modify a database structure
get-page: View a specific page
get-block-children: View content blocks
append-block-children: Add content to a page
update-block: Edit content blocks
get-block: View a specific block
search: Find content across your workspace

Troubleshooting

Common Issues

"Connection failed" in Claude
- Make sure the server path in claude_desktop_config.json is correct
- Check that your Notion API key is valid
- Ensure Node.js is installed
"Access denied" when accessing Notion content
- Make sure you've shared the page/database with your integration
- Check that your API key has the necessary permissions
Server won't start
- Ensure all dependencies are installed (npm install)
- Check that the .env file exists with your API key

How to install this MCP server

For Claude Code

To add this MCP server to Claude Code, run this command in your terminal:

claude mcp add-json "notion" '{"command":"node","args":["path/to/notion-mcp-server/server.js"],"env":{"NOTION_API_KEY":"your_notion_api_key_here"}}'

See the official Claude Code MCP documentation for more details.

For Cursor

There are two ways to add an MCP server to Cursor. The most common way is to add the server globally in the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file so that it is available in all of your projects.

If you only need the server in a single project, you can add it to the project instead by creating or adding it to the .cursor/mcp.json file.

Adding an MCP server to Cursor globally

To add a global MCP server go to Cursor Settings > Tools & Integrations and click "New MCP Server".

When you click that button the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file will be opened and you can add your server like this:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "notion": {
            "command": "node",
            "args": [
                "path/to/notion-mcp-server/server.js"
            ],
            "env": {
                "NOTION_API_KEY": "your_notion_api_key_here"
            }
        }
    }
}

Adding an MCP server to a project

To add an MCP server to a project you can create a new .cursor/mcp.json file or add it to the existing one. This will look exactly the same as the global MCP server example above.

How to use the MCP server

Once the server is installed, you might need to head back to Settings > MCP and click the refresh button.

The Cursor agent will then be able to see the available tools the added MCP server has available and will call them when it needs to.

You can also explicitly ask the agent to use the tool by mentioning the tool name and describing what the function does.

For Claude Desktop

To add this MCP server to Claude Desktop:

1. Find your configuration file:

macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
Linux: ~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

2. Add this to your configuration file:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "notion": {
            "command": "node",
            "args": [
                "path/to/notion-mcp-server/server.js"
            ],
            "env": {
                "NOTION_API_KEY": "your_notion_api_key_here"
            }
        }
    }
}

3. Restart Claude Desktop for the changes to take effect