I want to integrate my Notion workspace with an external API so that when I modify certain properties in my database, it automatically makes HTTP requests to a third-party service.
For example, when I update a project status field from “pending” to “active”, I need Notion to automatically trigger an API call to my external system. I know Notion provides some automation examples like the SendGrid email integration, but I’m struggling to understand how to implement this for custom API endpoints.
Has anyone successfully set up this kind of automation? I’m looking for guidance on how to configure database triggers that can communicate with external services without running code locally on my machine.
Had this same problem 6 months back. Ended up going with Microsoft Power Automate since we already had Office 365 licenses. I set up a flow that watches for changes in our Notion database through their API connector, then pushes the data to our CRM via REST calls. Here’s what worked: I created a custom timestamp property in Notion. When core fields change, I update this timestamp, which triggers the Power Automate flow. It’s not instant - usually takes 5-10 minutes to pick up changes. Watch out for infinite loops though. If your external API updates Notion back, you’ll create a mess. Had to add conditional logic to stop that from happening.
totally agree! zapier makes it super easy to link notion n other apis without all the coding fuss. just set a trigger for when you update ur db n connect it to the api with a webhook. saves sooo much time!
I’ve done this with Make (used to be Integromat) and it works great. Set up a webhook in Make to watch your Notion database for property changes, then have it fire HTTP requests to your external API when certain conditions hit. The trick is using Notion’s API to poll for updates every few minutes. Yeah, there’s a small delay vs real-time triggers, but it’s solid and you don’t need any local setup. Just make sure you handle auth properly for both Notion and your external service - I got burned when my API calls started dying because of expired tokens.