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Helper actions with Notion integration

Dive deeper into what actions Helpers can do in the chat interface once the Notion integration is set up and find prompt examples.

Amber avatar
Written by Amber
Updated this week

Notion integrations allows multiple actions; however, they also require specific prompting. The notion integration allows interacting with 2 types of pages:

  1. Content pages

  2. Databases

Helpers can do the following actions when Notion integration is set up:

  1. Return a list of Notion workspace users

  2. Search for content or database pages

  3. Create a content page or a database page

  4. For content pages specifically, they can:

    • Search for a page/all pages

    • Add content to a page

    • Retrieve content from a page

    • Delete a content block

  5. For database pages specifically, they can:

    • Search for a database/all available databases

    • Change/update properties in database pages

    • Retrieve information from a database

    • Insert a row in a database

To enable these actions set up a Notion integration first.

With Notion integration Helpers can't:

  • Edit content in Notion pages

  • Delete any type (page/database) of Notion pages

  • Move or reorganize pages within your Notion workspace

  • Share Notion content with others outside of this chat

These actions have to be done manually by you in Notion.

Now this is out of the way, let's dive into each action activation!

Returning Notion workspace users

You can easily see the list of people that have access to your Notion workspace!

Prompt examples for retrieving Notion workspace users

What users use my Notion workspace?
List out my Notion workspace users.

Searching for pages in Notion

After setting up the Notion integration - we recommend to fetch pages that are accessible to the Helper. This way you'll see a list of pages that the Helper can work with.

Prompt example for fetching Notion pages

Check my Notion workspace and list out pages that you can see.
Check my Notion workspace and list out databases that you can see.

Important note: it's important to clarify to the Helper if you want to work with pages or databases as they treat these pages separately.

In case this functionality seems to be malfunctioning - do the following:

  1. Go to Brain AI and click on Notion integration

  2. Click "Disconnect"

  3. Click "Connect" again

  4. Click the trash bin icon next to the connected Notion workspace

  5. Connect to Notion freshly

  6. Checkmark the pages that you want SIntra to access

When you manually create new pages in Notion - they aren't automatically synced due to the permissions granted during the integration process. Hence, our Helpers can only access the pages that you granted access to during integration process.

Creating a Notion page

While you aren't able to create the first parent page (which is usually visible by default on the side panel in Notion) - you are able to create child pages under any of the existing parent pages. To ensure the process works smoothly, it’s important to explicitly specify the title of the parent page where you’d like the new page to be created as well as the title for the new page.

When a page is created - you need to refresh Notion to see it.

Creating a Notion content page

Creating a Notion content page (not a database), requires the following information:

  • Title: the name for the new page

  • Parent page: ID, URL or title of the parent page

  • Content: content that should be included in this page

Use this prompt example:

Create a Notion page called [title] under the "[parent page]" page. The page should contain [content].

Or, if you have been chatting with a Helper and wish their message to be saved to a as a new page, use the following prompt example:

Save your message in a new Notion page called [title] under the "[parent page]" page. 

This will create a new page with the content in the specified location.

Creating a Notion database page

Creating a Notion database page, requires the following information:

  • Title: the name for the new database

  • Parent page: ID, URL or title of the parent page

  • Properties: these will be the column titles of the database (Note: the properties cannot be adjusted by the Helper; hence, clarify the properties when creating a database page)

Use this prompt example to create a database page

Create a child database page under "[parent page title]" parent page called "[database page title]" with the following properties: [list of properties]

Make sure to include keywords like "child page" and "parent page" for this action to work.

Adding content to a Notion content page

This action allows you to add individual content blocks to existing Notion pages. Unlike creating a new page with it's content, this function lets you append content to pages that already exist in your Notion workspace.

To add content to an existing Notion page, you will always need to provide the following information:

  • The page content should be added to

  • Content that should be added

Providing this basic information - a paragraph text will be added at the end of the page mentioned.

Use the following example prompt to add a paragraph at the end of specified page

Add "[insert content]" to the Notion page "[Your Page Name]"

Adding styled content in Notion pages

You can also add new content using styling! In order to utilize headings, lists, and etc, you would also need to clarify the styling you want to use in the prompt.

Example prompts

Add a bullet list to the Notion page "[Your Page Name]" that lists "[clarify what should be listed]"
Add a Heading 2 to the Notion page "[Your Page Name]" that says "[Heading title]"
Add a to-do item to the Notion page "[Your Page Name]" that says "[task description]" and is [checked/unchecked].
Add a code block to the Notion page "[Your Page Name]" in [programming language] with the code: "[your code]"

For further details on supported styling, refer to "Supported content block types" section.

Adding content in specific placement of Notion pages

You can clarify the placement of the new content block that will be added.

Example prompts

Add content after the paragraph that contains "[specific text]" in the Notion page "[Page Name]"
Add content after the first code block in the Notion page "[Page Name]"

For further details on referencing content placement, refer to "Referencing content blocks" section.

Retrieving content from a content page

You can retrieve content from a page by simply providing the Helper the Notion page title it should look at.

Prompt example for retrieving all information in a Notion page

What information can you see in [page title] page

However, you can also retrieve specific sections in that page according to the content, placement and/or styling.

Prompt example for retrieving concrete content from a Notion page with reference

What information is in the bullet-list in [page title] page?
Find the context that includes [keyword] keyword in [page title] page

For more information on referencing content, read "Referencing content blocks" section.

Deleting a content block in a content page

Similarly to retrieving content from a page - you can also delete content by referencing it. The content goes in content blocks. For example, all elements in a bullet list are treated as a singular content block; however, each paragraph is a separate content block.

You can only delete a full content block and cannot delete one element of it. Deleting a content block requires clarifying which content block you wish to delete; hence, will require referencing the content blocks.

Example prompts for deleting content blocks

Delete content blocks that contains [keyword] keyword in "[Page title]" page.
Delete the bullet-list from "[Page title]" page.
Delete the first Heading 2 from "[Page title]" page.

Retrieving a database

Use this prompt exmaple to retrieve database structure and properties

What info can you see in "[Database title]" database page?

Retrieving information from a database

You can retrieve the information from a database according to the data in it.

Prompt example for retrieving default information from a database:

What rows can you see in "[database page]" list?
What entries do you see in "[database page]" database page?

This will return the maximum possible results per Helper's message.

Querying database pages in detail

You can also retrieve information from a database, based on a query you have.

Prompt example for retrieving queried information from a database:

Give me a list of emails from "[database title]" database page in ascending order according to "[column (property) title]"

This will return the results that match your query.

Inserting a row in a database

When inserting rows, you need to clarify the database property values, otherwise they will be kept blank or the action will fail.

Prompt example for adding a row in a database:

Add a row in "{database title}" database page where [property name}: [property value], [property name}: [property value]...

Editing information in a database

You can now adjust the information available in a Notion database, simply clarify the entry and action that should be executed.

Prompt example for editing a database entry:

Remove the [value] in [property] column in "[Database title]" database.
Add [value] in [property] next to [property]: [value] in "[Database title]" database.

^This will only work if there are the property is null in the database^

Change [value] to [value] in "[Database title]" database.

Notion integration notes

Supported content block types

Notion integration supports a handful of content block types:

  • Headings: heading 1, heading 2, heading 3

  • Text: paragraph, quote

  • Lists: bulleted list, numbered list, to do list

  • Interactive: toggle

  • Code: code (with programming language support)

  • Visual: callout (with emoji icons)

  • Media: image, embed (with URLs)

Other content types are not supported with the Notion integration.

Referencing content blocks

You can reference the position of content blocks in 3 ways:

  1. By referencing the position in a Notion pagePosition-based reference

  2. By referencing the content in content blocks

  3. By referencing content block types

Method 1: Position-based reference example prompts

Add content after the first heading in the Notion page "[Page Name]"
Add content after the second paragraph in the Notion page "[Page Name]"
Add content at the end of the Notion page "[Page Name]"

Method 2: Content-based reference example prompts

Add content after the heading "Project Overview" in the Notion page "[Page Name]"
Add content after the paragraph that contains "[specific text]" in the Notion page "[Page Name]"

Method 3: Type-based reference example prompts

Add content after the first code block in the Notion page "[Page Name]"
Add content after the last to-do item in the Notion page "[Page Name]"
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