Connect Notion
Connect Notion, choose the pages to share, choose which existing pages Brain reads now, and fix export errors.
Connect Notion so GuruSup Brain can learn from your documents and knowledge bases. Only admins can do this. Brain can only read the pages you share with it.
Connecting keeps Brain up to date with pages as they change. To bring in the pages that already exist, you choose them in the app, or upload a Notion export. Both are covered below.
Connect Notion
Open the Notion connector
In the sidebar, open Sources and click Connect source. On Connect a source, find Notion and click View integration.
Connect and choose what to share
Click Connect. Brain sends you to Notion. When Notion asks, choose which pages or sections of Notion to share with Brain, then approve. Notion sends you back to the page you started from, and a message says Notion is connected.
Read Connectors overview for how approval works and what happens if the approval link expires. One Notion workspace can be connected to one Brain organization at a time.
What live sync covers
From then on, Brain picks up changes to the pages you shared. You do not reconnect or reshare. Brain reacts to these changes in Notion:
| Change in Notion | What Brain does |
|---|---|
| A page is created | Reads the new page. |
| A page's content is edited | Reads the page again. |
| A page's properties change | Reads the page again. |
| A page is moved | Reads the page again. |
| A page is deleted | Withdraws the page. What Brain already learned from it stays. |
| A deleted page is restored | Reads the page again. |
If a page that Brain was keeping up to date through live sync stops being shared, or Brain can no longer open it, Brain withdraws it in the same way. A page that only came from an export stays as it was. Withdrawing means Brain stops treating the page as live. It does not erase what was learned from it.
Attachments on a page, such as images, PDFs, audio, video and files, are kept as references to the attachment. Brain does not read what is inside them. Links and embeds are kept as links.
Change what is shared
To share more pages, or fewer, go through the approval again. Open Notion in Connect a source, click View integration and click Add account (or Reconnect if Brain shows it). Notion asks which pages to share again. Choose the pages you want and approve.
Choose the pages Brain reads
In setup, you do not choose anything. Once you approve access, Brain imports every page it can reach, on its own. Outside setup, connecting alone does not bring in pages that already exist and never change. Choose them in the app. You need to be an admin.
Open the Notion card on Sources and click Manage. Under Choose content, the help text reads "Selecting a page includes the page and everything inside it. Databases and tables include all their entries. Uncheck any pages you don't need."
Find pages
Type a title in Search pages by title and click Search, or browse the list. Click the arrow beside a page or database to open it and see what is inside, and Load more under it for more. Click Load more at the bottom of the list for more results, or Refresh list to load it again. If you connected more than one Notion account, a Notion account menu picks which one to browse.
Tick what you want
Tick the box beside a page. A page includes the pages inside it. On a database or table, the box is labelled "Select all entries in" followed by its title, and it selects every entry, also those not yet loaded. Unticking a page removes the pages inside it from your selection. The counter beside the button shows "N selected".
Import
Click Import selected. The button reads "Adding content… x/y" while Brain accepts the pages, then "N pages added. You can follow progress on Home." When every page is accepted, the panel closes. If it fails, the panel stays open, your selection is kept and you can try again.
If nothing matches, the list reads "No pages found here. Share pages with this Notion connection or try another title. Newly shared pages can take a moment to appear." The list only shows pages you shared with Brain in Notion. See Change what is shared.
Importing does not change which pages live sync follows, or the access you gave in Notion. Follow them on Follow ingestion.
Import a Notion export instead
You can also upload a Notion export as a backfill. This is a separate route from Choose content.
The export form is under Import a Notion export instead, in the Connections list of the drawer, which Brain shows when more than one Notion account is connected. Each account has its own form there. The form shows only while the connection has no backfill. Once one exists, it shows that backfill's status instead, and there is no button to upload another ZIP. Cancelling, failing or finishing a backfill does not bring the form back. See Follow the backfill.
Who and when. Only admins can start a backfill. The Notion connection has to be working. If it needs to be reconnected, Brain says "Reconnect Notion before uploading an export." and you reconnect first. Only one backfill can be active at a time for a connection: "A Notion backfill is already active for this connection."
Export from Notion
In Notion, export your content as Markdown & CSV and turn on Include subpages. Use the most recent export. Keep the ZIP exactly as downloaded. Do not unzip or repackage it.
Open the export form
In Sources, click Manage on the Notion card. Under Connections, open your Notion account, then open Import a Notion export instead. The heading reads "Backfill" followed by your Notion workspace name.
Choose the ZIP
Under Notion Export Archive, choose the ZIP. Only a ZIP is accepted. Brain shows an estimate of the usage the import will take and how many files it counted. Entries it cannot count, such as CSV files, are listed as not counted.
Confirm and upload
Tick the confirmation box: I confirm this archive belongs to followed by your Notion workspace name, and is the latest export available. Then click Upload and backfill. The button stays off until you have chosen the ZIP and ticked the box.
Brain says "Notion export uploaded. Processing continues in the background." You can leave the page and come back: the Backfill section picks up the latest backfill and keeps updating on its own.
The upload becomes the baseline for every page in it, so always use the latest export. Pages that Brain already holds in a newer version from live sync are not overwritten by an older copy in the export.
Why the upload can be refused
| Message | What to do |
|---|---|
| "Confirm that the export belongs to the workspace shown." | Tick the confirmation box. |
| "Upload the Notion export as a ZIP file." | Choose the ZIP file as downloaded from Notion. |
| "This file is empty. Download the export from Notion again." | Export again from Notion. |
| "This Notion export is too large to import (over 256 MB). Export fewer pages and upload it again." | The ZIP is over 256 MiB. Export a smaller part of the workspace. |
| "This Notion export is too large to upload. Export fewer pages and upload it again." | Same as above. |
| "Reconnect Notion before uploading an export." | The connection is not working. Reconnect it first. |
| "A Notion backfill is already active for this connection." | Wait for the current one to finish, or cancel it. |
| "Only organization admins can start Notion backfills." | Ask an admin. |
| "External ingestion is paused for this organization." or "Demo Mode prevents connecting or ingesting new external data." | Contact support. See Connectors overview. |
Each failure also starts with "Could not upload Notion export." in the red message.
If you upload a ZIP that is identical to one whose backfill already completed, Brain does not import it again.
Follow the backfill
The Backfill section shows a status, a line of counts and what to do next. It refreshes every few seconds while the backfill is running, and Refresh status updates it by hand.
| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
| Uploaded | Brain has your ZIP. |
| Validating archive | Brain is checking the ZIP. |
| Importing pages | Brain is bringing the pages in. |
| Complete | The backfill finished. |
| Incomplete | Some pages or database rows did not come in. The label adds that a retry is available. |
| Failed | The backfill failed. |
| Archive rejected | Shown instead of Failed when the problem is the ZIP itself. |
| Page validation failed | Shown instead of Failed when a page in the ZIP did not pass. |
| Cancelled | You cancelled it. Pages already accepted are kept. |
A lowercase badge next to the label shows the raw word, for example failed. If Brain has a message for the problem, it appears under the counts in red. The full status list for every screen is in Processing statuses.
Three buttons can appear:
- Cancel backfill, while the status is Uploaded, Validating archive or Importing pages. Brain says "Notion backfill cancelled. Accepted pages were preserved."
- Retry unresolved, on Incomplete or Failed, while Brain still has the ZIP. Brain says "Retry queued for unresolved Notion pages." Brain keeps the ZIP for up to 7 days after you upload it, and deletes it once the backfill completes. After it is deleted a retry is no longer possible: "This Notion export is no longer stored, so it can't be retried. Upload it again."
- Refresh status, always.
What the counts mean
The line reads like "12 accepted · 3 deduplicated · 0 stale ignored · 0 unresolved · 0 failed · 15 pages".
| Count | Meaning |
|---|---|
| accepted | Pages Brain took in from the export. |
| deduplicated | Pages identical to what Brain already held, so nothing new was needed. |
| stale ignored | Pages where Brain already had a newer version, so the older copy in the export was left out. |
| unresolved | Database rows in the export that could not be matched to a page. They are not imported. |
| failed | Pages that could not be imported because of a problem on our side. The others still imported. |
| pages | Pages found in the export. |
| data-source rows | Appears when the export has databases, as "matched/total" rows, for example "8/8 data-source rows". |
CSV files of databases are not counted as pages. The line under the counts says the export set a baseline for those pages and that live sync takes over page by page as Notion reports changes.
Imported pages become part of your memory only once Brain has learned them. Follow each one on Follow ingestion. What members can read from them follows categories, as for every source.
Messages when a backfill did not finish
| Message under the status | What to do |
|---|---|
| "N Notion pages couldn't be imported because of a problem on our side. The other pages were imported. Contact support if it keeps happening." | Click Retry unresolved. If it keeps happening, contact support. |
| "N database rows couldn't be matched to pages in this export, so they weren't imported. Check that the export includes every page, then upload it again." | Export again with Include subpages on and check every page is in it. |
| "Your Notion pages were imported. We're still cleaning up the uploaded file on our side; nothing else is needed from you." | Nothing. |
| "We couldn't process this Notion export because of a problem on our side. Contact support if it keeps happening." | Contact support. The status label reads Archive rejected for this message and for the "expired" one, even though the ZIP was not the problem. |
| "We couldn't start processing this Notion export because of a problem on our side. Contact support if it keeps happening." | Contact support. |
| "This Notion export expired before it finished processing. Upload it again." | Contact support, because the app shows no upload form once a backfill exists. |
Export limits and rejected exports
Brain checks the ZIP before importing it. These limits apply.
| Limit | Value |
|---|---|
| ZIP size as uploaded | 256 MiB |
| Size once unzipped | 1 GiB in total |
| Files in the export | 100,000 |
| One file | 64 MiB |
| Folder depth | 32 levels |
| One file name | 1,024 bytes |
| Compression | Files that expand more than 200 times are refused |
When the check fails, the status reads Archive rejected (or Page validation failed, or Failed for database problems) and the message says why. Brain deletes a rejected ZIP, so there is nothing to retry.
| Message | What to do |
|---|---|
| "This ZIP isn't a Notion Markdown & CSV export. Export your workspace from Notion as Markdown & CSV and upload that ZIP." | Export as Markdown & CSV, not HTML or PDF. |
| "Only Notion Markdown & CSV exports are supported." | Same. The export held HTML or PDF pages. |
| "This export has no Notion pages to import. Export your workspace from Notion as Markdown & CSV and upload that ZIP." | Check the export has pages, and that you exported Markdown & CSV. |
| "This ZIP is damaged and couldn't be opened. Download the export from Notion again." | Download it again. |
| "This ZIP contains files we can't safely import. Upload the ZIP exactly as Notion exported it." | Do not unzip or repackage the file. |
| "This Notion export couldn't be unpacked safely. Upload the ZIP exactly as Notion exported it." | Same. |
| "This Notion export is password-protected. Export it again without a password and upload it." | Export again without a password. |
| "This Notion export is too large to import (over 256 MB). Export fewer pages and upload it again." | Export fewer pages. |
| "Part of this Notion export is too large to import. Export fewer pages and upload it again." | Export fewer pages. |
| "A file in this Notion export is too large to import. Export fewer pages and upload it again." | Export fewer pages, or remove the very large page. |
| "This Notion export is too large once unzipped. Export fewer pages and upload it again." | Export fewer pages. |
| "This Notion export has too many files to import. Export fewer pages and upload it again." | Export fewer pages. |
| "This Notion export has pages nested too deeply to import. Export fewer nested pages and upload it again." | Export a smaller branch of the workspace. |
| "A file name in this Notion export is too long to import. Shorten that page title in Notion and export again." | Shorten the page title in Notion. |
| "A page in this export is missing its Notion ID. Upload the ZIP exactly as Notion exported it." | Do not rename files. Shown as Page validation failed. |
| "A page in this export isn't UTF-8 text. Upload the ZIP exactly as Notion exported it." | Same. Shown as Page validation failed. |
| "This export has two different versions of the same Notion page. Export the workspace again and upload only the new ZIP." | Make one fresh export. Shown as Page validation failed. |
| "A database CSV in this export is missing its Notion ID. Upload the ZIP exactly as Notion exported it." | Do not rename files. Shown as Failed. |
| "A database CSV in this export isn't UTF-8 text. Upload the ZIP exactly as Notion exported it." | Same. Shown as Failed. |
| "A database CSV in this export couldn't be read. Upload the ZIP exactly as Notion exported it." | Same. Shown as Failed. |
| "A database CSV in this export has no title column. Upload the ZIP exactly as Notion exported it." | Same. Shown as Failed. |
| "This export has two different versions of the same Notion database. Export the workspace again and upload only the new ZIP." | Make one fresh export. Shown as Failed. |
After a rejection the Backfill section keeps showing the rejected backfill and no upload form. To upload a corrected export, contact support and say which message you saw.
Check that it worked
- Change a shared page in Notion, for example add a sentence.
- Open Ingest and pick the Notion source in the source filter. The change appears and moves to Learned. See Follow ingestion.
- For a backfill, wait for Complete and check that the counts add up to the pages you expected.
- On Sources, the Notion card shows a growing number of memories.
Reconnect, add an account or disconnect
In Sources, click Manage on the Notion card.
- Reconnect. If the connection needs to be reconnected, the drawer says "This connection needs to be reconnected." Click Reconnect and approve again.
- Add account. Connect a second Notion workspace from Connect a source. Each workspace is its own connection with its own backfill, listed under Connections in the drawer.
- Remove source. Under Actions, click Remove source, then Confirm. Brain stops collecting from the source and keeps what it learned.
- Disconnect. Under Actions, click Disconnect, then Confirm. This removes the connection, and Brain revokes its access in Notion. What Brain already learned stays. Disconnect removes the whole connection, not only the source you opened.
If Notion says "This Notion workspace is already connected to another organization.", that Notion workspace is linked to a different Brain organization. Disconnect it there first.
If ingestion is paused or Demo Mode is on, none of these buttons work. See Connectors overview.