I’m trying to set up automatic API calls to external services whenever I update certain properties in my Notion database. My goal is to have the system automatically send requests to a third-party service when I modify specific field values.
For example, when I update a property from “pending” to “active”, I want this change to automatically trigger an HTTP request to my external API endpoint.
I know Notion provides integration examples like the Sendgrid email automation, but I’m struggling to understand how to implement this for custom API calls within my actual database setup rather than just running it locally.
Has anyone successfully implemented something similar? I’ve looked at their template databases but found the documentation confusing for my specific use case.
I built this exact setup about six months ago for a project management workflow. Best approach I found was Notion’s API plus a simple webhook service on Vercel or Netlify Functions. Here’s what worked: Set up a periodic check every few minutes that hits the Notion database for recent changes using the last_edited_time property. When it spots changes to your target fields, fire off HTTP requests to whatever external services you need. Biggest pain point was rate limits - both Notion’s and your target API’s. You’ll need solid error handling and retry logic since network calls love to fail randomly. Also store your last successful check timestamp so you don’t process the same updates twice. This gives you way more control than third-party automation tools and costs less if you’re cool with basic server-side coding.
hey alex, u should try using zapier! it connects your notion db to apis super easy. just set a trigger for updates and use a webhook to reach ur api. it’s way simpler than coding everything manually. hope that helps!
Notion webhooks would be perfect but they don’t exist yet. I built a Node.js script that runs every 30 seconds via cron job. It checks my Notion database for records where last_edited_time is newer than my last check, then compares current values against what’s in my cache file. When it spots the field changes I want, it fires the API call right away. The trick is tracking your own state since Notion won’t tell you what actually changed. I’m running this on Railway for about 5 bucks a month and it’s been bulletproof for months. Way better than slower polling solutions and you get near real-time responses.