Authorization

Navigate the user to the integration’s authorization URL

After your integration has been successfully made public in your integration’s settings page, you will be able to access the integration’s secrets in the Configuration tab. Similarly to the internal integrations, these values should be protected and should never be included in source code or version control.

As an example, your .env file using these secrets could look like this:

#.env
OAUTH_CLIENT_ID=<your-client-id>
OAUTH_CLIENT_SECRET=<your-client-secret>
NOTION_AUTH_URL=<your-auth-url>

To start the authorization flow for a public integration, you need to direct the prospective user to the authorization URL. To do this, it is common to include a hyperlink in the integration app that will be interacting with the Notion REST API. For example, if you have an app that will allow users to create new Notion pages for their workspace(s), you will first need them to first visit the authorization URL by clicking on the link.

The following example shows an authorization URL made available through a hyperlink:

<a href="https://api.notion.com/v1/oauth/authorize?owner=user&client_id=463558a3-725e-4f37-b6d3-0889894f68de&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fexample.com%2Fauth%2Fnotion%2Fcallback&response_type=code">Add to Notion</a>

The URL begins with https://api.notion.com/v1/oauth/authorize and has the following parameters:

Once the authorization URL is visited, the user will be shown a prompt that varies depending on whether or not the integration comes with a Notion template option.

Prompt for a standard integration with no template option (Default)

In the standard integration permissions flow, a prompt describes the integration capabilities, presented to the user as what the integration would like to be able to do in the workspace. A user can either select pages to grant the integration access to, or cancel the request.

If the user presses Cancel, they will be redirected to the redirect URI with and error query param added.

www.example.com/my-redirect-uri?error=access_denied&state=

You can use this errorquery parameter to conditionally update your app’s state as needed.

If the user opts to Select pages, then a page picker interface opens. A user can search for and select pages and databases to share with the integration from the page picker.

Users can select which pages to give the integration access to, including both private and public pages available to them. Parent pages can be selected to quickly provide access to child pages, as giving access to a parent page will provide access to all available child pages. Users can return to this view at a later time to update access settings if circumstances change.

If the user clicks Allow access, they are then redirected to the redirect_uri with a temporary authorization code. If the user denies access, they are redirected to the redirect_uri with an error query parameter.

If the user clicks Allow access and the rest of the auth flow is not completed, the integration will not have access to the pages that were selected.

Prompt for an integration with a Notion template option

Public integrations offer the option of providing a public Notion page to use as a template during the auth flow.

To add a template to your workspace, complete the following steps:

• Choose a public page in your workspace that you want users to be able to duplicate.
• Navigate to your integration’s settings and go to the Basic Information tab.
• Scroll to the bottom of your distribution settings and add the URL of the Notion page you selected to the Notion URL for optional template input.

Once this URL is added, your auth flow prompt appearance will be updated.

Going back to your prompt view, if the integration offers a Notion template option, the first step in the permissions flow will describe the integration capabilities. This is presented to the user as what the integration would be able to do in the workspace, and it prompts the user to click Next.

In the next step, a user can either choose to duplicate the template that you provided or to select existing pages to share with the integration.

If the user chooses to duplicate the template, then the following happens automatically:

• The integration is added to the user’s workspace.
• The template is duplicated as a new page in the workspace.
• The new page is shared with the integration.

If the user chooses to select pages to share with the integration, then they continue to the page picker interface that’s part of the prompt for a standard integration.

User authorization failures

User authorization failures can happen. If a user chooses to Cancel the request, then a failure is triggered. Build your integration to handle these cases gracefully, as needed.

In some cases, Notion redirects the user to the redirect_uri that you set up when you created the public integration, along with an error query parameter. Notion uses the common error codes in the OAuth specification. Use the error code to create a helpful prompt for the user when they’re redirected here.

Notion redirects the user to the integration’s redirect URI and includes a code parameter

When you first created the public integration, you specified a redirect URI. If the user follows the prompt to Allow access for the integration, then Notion generates a temporary code and sends a request to the redirect URI with the following information in the query string:

To complete the next set, you will need to retrieve the code query parameter provided in the redirect. How you retrieve this value will vary depending on your app’s tech stack.

In a React component, for example, the query parameters are made available through the useRouter() hook:

export default function AuthRedirectPage() {
  const router = useRouter();
  const { code } = router.query;
  ...
}

Send the code in a POST request to the Notion API

The integration needs to exchange the temporary code for an access_token.

To set up this step, retrieve the code from the redirect URI.

Next, you will need to send the code as part of a POST request to Notion’s token endpoint: https://api.notion.com/v1/oauth/token.

This endpoint is described in more detail in the API reference docs for creating a token.

The request is authorized using HTTP Basic Authentication. The credential is a colon-delimited combination of the integration’s CLIENT_ID and CLIENT_SECRET, like so:

CLIENT_ID:CLIENT_SECRET

You can find both of these values in the integration’s settings.

Note that in HTTP Basic Authentication, credentials are base64 encoded before being added to the Authorization header.

The body of the request contains the following JSON-encoded fields:

The following is an example request to exchange the authorization code for an access token:

POST /v1/oauth/token HTTP/1.1
Authorization: Basic "$CLIENT_ID:$CLIENT_SECRET" 
Content-Type: application/json
{"grant_type":"authorization_code","code":"e202e8c9-0990-40af-855f-ff8f872b1ec6", "redirect_uri":"https://example.com/auth/notion/callback"}

The Node-equivalent of this example would look something like this:

...
const clientId = process.env.OAUTH_CLIENT_ID;
const clientSecret = process.env.OAUTH_CLIENT_SECRET;
const redirectUri = process.env.OAUTH_REDIRECT_URI;
// encode in base 64
const encoded = btoa(`${clientId}:${clientSecret}`);
const response = await fetch("https://api.notion.com/v1/oauth/token", {
	method: "POST",
	headers: {
	Accept: "application/json",
	"Content-Type": "application/json",
	Authorization: `Basic ${encoded}`,
},
	body: JSON.stringify({
		grant_type: "authorization_code",
		code: "your-temporary-code",
		redirect_uri: redirectUri,
	}),
});
...

Notion responds with an access_token , refresh_token, and additional information

Notion responds to the request with an access_token, refresh_token, and additional information. The access_token will be used to authenticate subsequent Notion REST API requests. The refresh_token will be used to refresh the access token, which generates a new access_token.

The response contains the following JSON-encoded fields:

Token request failures

If something goes wrong when the integration attempts to exchange the code for an access_token, then the response contains a JSON-encoded body with an "error" field. Notion uses the common error codes from the OAuth specification.

The integration stores the access_token and refresh_token for future requests

You need to set up a way for your integration to store both the access_token and refresh_token that it receives. The access_token is used to make authorized requests to the Notion API, and the refresh_token is used to generate a new access_token.

Tips for storing and using token access

• Setting up a database is a typical solution for storing access tokens. If you’re using a database, then build relations between an access_token, refresh_token, and the corresponding Notion resources that your integration accesses with that token. For example, if you store a Notion database or page ID, relate those records with the correct access_token that you use to authorize requests to read or write to that database or page, and the refresh_token for ongoing token lifecycle support..
• Store all of the information that your integration receives with the access_token and refresh_token. You never know when your UI or product requirements might change and you’ll need this data. It’s really hard (or impossible) to send users to repeat the authorization flow to generate the information again.
• The bot_id returned along with your tokens should act as your primary key when storing information.

Refreshing an access token

Refreshing an access token will generate a new access token and a new refresh token.

You will need to send the refresh_token provided from Step 4 as part of a POST request to Notion’s token endpoint: https://api.notion.com/v1/oauth/token.

This endpoint is described in more detail in the API reference docs for refreshing a token.

The request is authorized using HTTP Basic Authentication. The credential is a colon-delimited combination of the integration’s CLIENT_ID and CLIENT_SECRET, like so:

CLIENT_ID:CLIENT_SECRET

You can find both of these values in the integration’s settings.

Note that in HTTP Basic Authentication, credentials are base64 encoded before being added to the Authorization header.

The body of the request contains the following JSON-encoded fields:

The following is an example request to exchange the refresh_token for a new access token and new refresh token

POST /v1/oauth/token HTTP/1.1
Authorization: Basic "$CLIENT_ID:$CLIENT_SECRET" 
Content-Type: application/json
{"grant_type":"refresh_token","refresh_token":"nrt_4991090011501Ejc6Xn4sHguI7jZIN449mKe9PRhpMfNK"}

The Node-equivalent of this example would look something like this:

...
const clientId = process.env.OAUTH_CLIENT_ID;
const clientSecret = process.env.OAUTH_CLIENT_SECRET;
// encode in base 64
const encoded = btoa(`${clientId}:${clientSecret}`);
const response = await fetch("https://api.notion.com/v1/oauth/token", {
	method: "POST",
	headers: {
	Accept: "application/json",
	"Content-Type": "application/json",
	Authorization: `Basic ${encoded}`,
},
	body: JSON.stringify({
		grant_type: "refresh_token",
		refresh_token: "your-refresh-token",
	}),
});
...