> For clean Markdown of any page, append .md to the page URL.
> For a complete documentation index, see https://notion.ferndocs.com/llms.txt.
> For AI client integration (Claude Code, Cursor, etc.), connect to the MCP server at https://notion.ferndocs.com/_mcp/server.

# Retrieve and update blocks with GET and PATCH /v1/blocks/:id

You can now retrieve and update block objects with the Notion API! The `PATCH` endpoint currently supports updating `paragraph`, `heading_1`, `heading_2`, `heading_3`, `bulleted_list_item`, `numbered_list_item`, `toggle` and `to_do` blocks.

## Retrieve a Block
The [Retrieve a Block](/reference/retrieve-a-block) endpoint returns a [Block Object](/reference/block). 
```curl
curl 'https://api.notion.com/v1/blocks/9bc30ad4-9373-46a5-84ab-0a7845ee52e6' \
  -H 'Authorization: Bearer '"$NOTION_API_KEY"'' \
  -H 'Notion-Version: 2021-05-13'
```

**`JSON`**

```json JSON
{
  "object": "block",
  "id": "9bc30ad4-9373-46a5-84ab-0a7845ee52e6",
  "created_time": "2021-03-16T16:31:00.000Z",
  "last_edited_time": "2021-03-16T16:32:00.000Z",
  "has_children": false,
  "type": "to_do",
  "to_do": {
    "text": [
      {
        "type": "text",
        "text": {
          "content": "Lacinato kale",
          "link": null
        },
        "annotations": {
          "bold": false,
          "italic": false,
          "strikethrough": false,
          "underline": false,
          "code": false,
          "color": "default"
        },
        "plain_text": "Lacinato kale",
        "href": null
      }
    ],
    "checked": false
  }
}
```
## Update a Block
The new `PATCH` `/v1/blocks/:id` endpoint supports updating block content (the properties within the block type object) and returns the updated [Block Object](/reference/block), same as the `GET` endpoint shown above. See the [Update a Block](/reference/update-a-block) documentation for more detail.
```curl
curl https://api.notion.com/v1/blocks/9bc30ad4-9373-46a5-84ab-0a7845ee52e6 \
  -H 'Authorization: Bearer '"$NOTION_API_KEY"'' \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Notion-Version: 2021-05-13" \
  -X PATCH \
  --data '{
  "to_do": {
    "text": [{ 
      "text": { "content": "Lacinato kale" } 
      }],
    "checked": false
  }
}'
```