Notion — Printing Press CLI

Prerequisites: Install the CLI

This skill drives the notion-pp-cli binary. You must verify the CLI is installed before invoking any command from this skill. If it is missing, install it first:

1. Install via the Printing Press installer. It defaults binaries to $HOME/.local/bin on macOS/Linux and %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\PrintingPress\bin on Windows:

   npx -y @mvanhorn/printing-press-library install notion --cli-only
   

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2. Verify: notion-pp-cli --version
3. Ensure the reported install directory is on $PATH for the agent/runtime that will invoke this skill.

If the npx install fails (no Node, offline, etc.), fall back to a direct Go install (requires Go 1.26.6 or newer):

go install github.com/mvanhorn/printing-press-library/library/productivity/notion/cmd/notion-pp-cli@latest

If --version reports "command not found" after install, the runtime cannot see the binary directory on $PATH. Do not proceed with skill commands until verification succeeds.

When to Use This CLI

Use notion-pp-cli when you need to manage Notion pages and blocks from the terminal, detect stale pages, or track what changed since a given time. Run sync once to populate the local store, then stale and changed work offline. Not a substitute for the Notion web UI for day-to-day editing.

Unique Capabilities

These capabilities aren't available in any other tool for this API.

Agent-native plumbing

• changed — Show everything in the workspace added, edited, or deleted since your last sync or a given timestamp.

  Use at the start of an agent session to orient on what has changed before taking action.

  notion-pp-cli changed --since 2h --json
  

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Local state that compounds

• stale — List pages and records not edited in N days, filterable by database, parent, or tag.

  Use to identify dead pages before workspace cleanup or to flag deliverables overdue for review.

  notion-pp-cli stale --days 30 --db ProjectDB --agent
  

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Command Reference

blocks — Block endpoints

• notion-pp-cli blocks delete — Delete a block
• notion-pp-cli blocks query-meeting-notes — Query meeting notes
• notion-pp-cli blocks get — Get a block by ID
• notion-pp-cli blocks update — Update a block
• notion-pp-cli blocks children list — List children of a block or page
• notion-pp-cli blocks children append — Append blocks to a page or block

comments — Comment endpoints

• notion-pp-cli comments create-a — Create a comment
• notion-pp-cli comments delete-a — Delete a comment
• notion-pp-cli comments list — List comments
• notion-pp-cli comments retrieve — Retrieve a comment
• notion-pp-cli comments update-a — Update a comment

custom-emojis — Custom emoji endpoints

• notion-pp-cli custom-emojis — List custom emojis

data-sources — Data source endpoints

• notion-pp-cli data-sources create-a-database — Create a data source
• notion-pp-cli data-sources retrieve-a — Retrieve a data source
• notion-pp-cli data-sources update-a — Update a data source
• notion-pp-cli data-sources query post-database <data_source_id> — Query a data source. Note: the leaf command is post-database, not a bare query — data-sources query is an intermediate group that prints help. This differs from databases query <id>, which executes directly.

databases — Database endpoints

• notion-pp-cli databases query <database_id> — Query records in a database with optional filter/sort
• notion-pp-cli databases create — Create a database
• notion-pp-cli databases retrieve — Retrieve a database
• notion-pp-cli databases update — Update a database

file-uploads — File upload endpoints

• notion-pp-cli file-uploads create-file — Create a file upload
• notion-pp-cli file-uploads list — List file uploads
• notion-pp-cli file-uploads retrieve — Retrieve a file upload

notion-search — Manage notion search

• notion-pp-cli notion-search — Search by title

oauth — OAuth endpoints (basic authentication)

• notion-pp-cli oauth create-a-token — Exchange an authorization code for an access and refresh token
• notion-pp-cli oauth introspect-token — Introspect a token
• notion-pp-cli oauth revoke-token — Revoke a token

pages — Page endpoints

• notion-pp-cli pages update — Update a page
• notion-pp-cli pages create — Create a page
• notion-pp-cli pages get — Get a page by ID
• notion-pp-cli pages move — Move a page
• notion-pp-cli pages markdown export — Export a page as markdown

users — User endpoints

• notion-pp-cli users get — List all users
• notion-pp-cli users get-self — Retrieve your token's bot user
• notion-pp-cli users get-userid — Retrieve a user

views — View endpoints

• notion-pp-cli views create — Create a view
• notion-pp-cli views delete — Delete a view
• notion-pp-cli views list — List views
• notion-pp-cli views retrieve-a — Retrieve a view
• notion-pp-cli views update-a — Update a view

sync pages — Sync all pages and databases to local SQLite

• notion-pp-cli sync pages — Sync all pages and databases via search API (run before stale/changed)
• notion-pp-cli sync pages --full — Full resync from scratch
• notion-pp-cli sync pages --type database — Sync databases only

Finding the right command

When you know what you want to do but not which command does it, ask the CLI directly:

notion-pp-cli which "<capability in your own words>"

which resolves a natural-language capability query to the best matching command from this CLI's curated feature index. Exit code 0 means at least one match; exit code 2 means no confident match — fall back to --help or use a narrower query.

Recipes

Morning triage: what changed overnight

notion-pp-cli changed --since 8h --json

Show everything edited in the last 8 hours — use at session start to orient before taking action.

Find stale pages before cleanup

notion-pp-cli stale --days 30 --json --select id,title,days_since_edit,last_edited_time

Pages untouched for 30+ days, sorted oldest-first. The Notion UI has no equivalent filter across multiple workspaces.

Export a page as markdown

notion-pp-cli pages markdown export <page-id>

Fetches the page content as markdown via the native Notion markdown endpoint — no conversion needed.

Read block children of a page

notion-pp-cli blocks children list <page-id> --json --select id,type

List all top-level blocks on a page with their types and IDs.

Auth Setup

Requires a Notion Internal Integration token. Create one at notion.so/my-integrations, share your top-level pages with it, then set NOTION_BEARER_AUTH (or NOTION_TOKEN) in your environment.

First-run setup:

notion-pp-cli doctor          # verify auth
notion-pp-cli sync pages      # sync all pages + databases (~15k pages, takes 2-3 min)
notion-pp-cli stale --days 30 # now works
notion-pp-cli changed --since 24h

Run notion-pp-cli doctor to verify setup.

Agent Mode

Add --agent to any command. Expands to: --json --compact --no-input --no-color --yes.

• Pipeable — JSON on stdout, errors on stderr

• Filterable — --select keeps a subset of fields. Dotted paths descend into nested structures; arrays traverse element-wise. Critical for keeping context small on verbose APIs:

  notion-pp-cli comments list --block-id 550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000 --agent --select id,name,status
  

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• Previewable — --dry-run shows the request without sending

• Offline-friendly — sync/search commands can use the local SQLite store when available

• Non-interactive — never prompts, every input is a flag

• Explicit retries — use --idempotent only when an already-existing create should count as success, and --ignore-missing only when a missing delete target should count as success

Response envelope

Commands that read from the local store or the API wrap output in a provenance envelope:

{
  "meta": {"source": "live" | "local", "synced_at": "...", "reason": "..."},
  "results": <data>
}

Parse .results for data and .meta.source to know whether it's live or local. A human-readable N results (live) summary is printed to stderr only when stdout is a terminal — piped/agent consumers get pure JSON on stdout.

Agent Feedback

When you (or the agent) notice something off about this CLI, record it:

notion-pp-cli feedback "the --since flag is inclusive but docs say exclusive"
notion-pp-cli feedback --stdin < notes.txt
notion-pp-cli feedback list --json --limit 10

Entries are stored locally at ~/.notion-pp-cli/feedback.jsonl. They are never POSTed unless NOTION_FEEDBACK_ENDPOINT is set AND either --send is passed or NOTION_FEEDBACK_AUTO_SEND=true. Default behavior is local-only.

Write what surprised you, not a bug report. Short, specific, one line: that is the part that compounds.

Output Delivery

Every command accepts --deliver <sink>. The output goes to the named sink in addition to (or instead of) stdout, so agents can route command results without hand-piping. Three sinks are supported:

Unknown schemes are refused with a structured error naming the supported set. Webhook failures return non-zero and log the URL + HTTP status on stderr.

Named Profiles

A profile is a saved set of flag values, reused across invocations. Use it when a scheduled agent calls the same command every run with the same configuration - HeyGen's "Beacon" pattern.

notion-pp-cli profile save briefing --json
notion-pp-cli --profile briefing comments list --block-id 550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000
notion-pp-cli profile list --json
notion-pp-cli profile show briefing
notion-pp-cli profile delete briefing --yes

Explicit flags always win over profile values; profile values win over defaults. agent-context lists all available profiles under available_profiles so introspecting agents discover them at runtime.

Exit Codes

Argument Parsing

Parse $ARGUMENTS:

1. Empty, help, or --help → show notion-pp-cli --help output
2. Starts with install → ends with mcp → MCP installation; otherwise → see Prerequisites above
3. Anything else → Direct Use (execute as CLI command with --agent)

MCP Server Installation

1. Install the MCP server:

   go install github.com/mvanhorn/printing-press-library/library/productivity/notion/cmd/notion-pp-mcp@latest
   

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2. Register with Claude Code:

   claude mcp add notion-pp-mcp -- notion-pp-mcp
   

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3. Verify: claude mcp list

Direct Use

1. Check if installed: which notion-pp-cli If not found, offer to install (see Prerequisites at the top of this skill).
2. Match the user query to the best command from the Unique Capabilities and Command Reference above.
3. Execute with the --agent flag:

   notion-pp-cli <command> [subcommand] [args] --agent
   

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4. If ambiguous, drill into subcommand help. Use notion-pp-cli <command> --help --agent when you need a machine-readable command/flag envelope; plain --help stays human-readable.