A Primer on Unito’s Notion Integration

Our Notion integration is live! Because it's still in beta, here are a few things you should know.

How does this beta work?

When an integration on the upcoming integrations page gets enough interest, we start working on adding it to the Unito toolbox. We then release a beta version of the integration so you can get access to it earlier. That opens it up to your feedback so we can tailor it to better fit your use case.

Our Notion integration is now in beta, meaning you can start connecting it to your Unito account right now! However, there are a few differences between a beta integration and a regular integration that you should know about.

Note: Notion's API is still in beta, which creates some limitations for our integration. You can get a better idea of what's possible with Notion integrations here.

Supported fields and other features

Beta integrations don't always support as many fields as their full-featured counterparts. Here are the fields you can sync with our Notion integration, along with which fields can be used in rules.

Notion fields

If there's something you'd like to see from this integration that we're not doing yet, please reach out to us! Your feedback helps us focus our efforts.

What counts as an item in sync?

For Notion, Unito counts every synced page as an item in sync.

Limitations (and other things to keep in mind):

Because this integration is still in beta, there are some things you won't be able to do.

  • Sync attachments: You won’t be able to sync attachments to (and from) Notion just yet.

  • Supported pages: Currently, our Notion integration can only sync information that comes out of a Notion database. Notion tables can't be used as blocks of work for this integration. If you turn a Notion table into a database, just make sure you give that database a name and it will show up in your flow as a block of work.

  • Rich text: That means no formatted text, no mentions, and no emojis 😞

  • Webhooks: This integration doesn't support webhooks.

  • Character limits: Notion's API limits each block to 2000 characters. That means if you sync a work item from another tool that has a field with over 2000 characters, the data in that field will be shortened to 2000 characters. This is a limitation on the Notion side, and unfortunately not something we can control. Note that if your flow is built with two-way updates enabled, the field in the original tool can have its length reduced to 2000 characters to stay synced with Notion, which can result in lost data. The best way to avoid this is to make sure you don't sync a single field with more than 2000 characters to Notion.

Necessary permissions

During the authorization process, you'll need to select the pages or databases you want to give Unito access to — along with its children.

Notion oauth

Installation instructions

To be able to use Unito’s two-way Notion sync, there are four steps you must take to enable in your Notion databases:

  1. Go ahead and connect your Notion account on Unito.

  2. Before you connect, we recommend creating a shared Notion account that has access to all pages and databases in your workspace. That way, anyone who needs to create a Unito flow can use this Notion account. That's because only one Notion user per workspace can connect to an app like Unito — this is a limitation from Notion's API. Not using a shared account may cause flows to stop working if someone else in your workspace connects their Notion account to Unito.

    1. We recommend treating this shared account as an admin account. That means only sharing access with people within your company who absolutely need it.

  3. For Unito to find the databases you want to sync, you'll need to invite Unito to each database you would like to add to a Unito flow.

    1. First, open your pages with the databases you want to add to a flow.

    2. In the share menu in the top-right, search for "Unito" and invite it to the page.

    3. Make sure the bot has the "Can edit" permission.

    4. You don't need to reauthorize Unito, when you want to sync more databases. You just need to invite "Unito" to your databases.

  4. Lastly, you must enable the Last edited time column in your databases. Otherwise, you won't be able to sync with Unito.

    1. First, open any databases you want to add to a Unito flow.

    2. Add a new column using the Last edited time property type.

    3. You can hide this column but it must be on the database.

We can't wait to see what you do with this integration. If you have any questions or feature requests, please reach out to us! We'll be happy to help.