I’ve been working with Notion’s API and noticed their documentation looks like it was built from an OpenAPI specification. The formatting and structure really give it away. I need to get my hands on the actual YAML or JSON file that defines their API endpoints, but I can’t seem to locate it anywhere on their official site or GitHub repos.
Having access to the raw spec file would make it so much easier to generate client libraries and work with their API programmatically. Does anyone know if Notion has made their OpenAPI specification publicly available for download? I’ve searched through their developer portal but haven’t had any luck finding the source files.
The Problem: You need to access Notion’s API, but you can’t find their publicly available OpenAPI specification (YAML or JSON file) to generate client libraries and work programmatically with their API. You’ve searched their developer portal and GitHub repositories without success.
Understanding the “Why” (The Root Cause):
Notion, like many companies, may choose not to publicly release their complete OpenAPI specification for various reasons, including security concerns, internal development processes, or simply to control how developers interact with their API. Direct access to the specification might reveal details about the API’s internal structure that could be exploited or misused. Reverse engineering their API is possible, but it’s time-consuming and prone to inaccuracies. Therefore, solutions that bypass the need for the OpenAPI spec are often more efficient.
Step-by-Step Guide:
Use a No-Code/Low-Code Integration Platform: Instead of wrestling with the Notion API specification, use a platform like Latenode. Latenode provides a visual workflow builder that directly interacts with the Notion API without requiring you to download or parse any specification files. This approach eliminates the need for manually generating client libraries or reverse-engineering the API.
Connect to Notion: Within Latenode’s interface, you will find built-in connectors for Notion. Connect your Notion workspace by providing the necessary authentication credentials. Latenode will handle the details of authentication and authorization with the Notion API.
Design Your Workflow: Latenode allows you to visually design your API interactions. Use its intuitive drag-and-drop interface to define how you want to retrieve, modify, or create data in your Notion workspace. This process is far simpler than manually writing API calls based on a reverse-engineered specification.
Execute and Test: After designing your workflow, execute it within Latenode. Test thoroughly to ensure that your interactions with the Notion API are working as intended. Latenode will handle error handling and provide useful debugging information.
Common Pitfalls & What to Check Next:
Authentication Errors: Double-check that your Notion API integration within Latenode is correctly configured with valid and up-to-date credentials. Latenode’s documentation usually provides details on troubleshooting authentication problems.
Rate Limiting: Be mindful of Notion’s API rate limits. If you are making too many requests within a short time frame, you will encounter errors. Latenode might have built-in mechanisms to handle rate limiting, but reviewing the documentation on this point is recommended.
Data Mapping: Ensure that the data being exchanged between Latenode and Notion is correctly mapped. Pay attention to data types and formats to avoid inconsistencies.
Still running into issues? Share your (sanitized) config files, the exact command you ran, and any other relevant details. The community is here to help!
yeah, notion’s pretty secretive about their api docs. i tried online tools that convert rest docs to openapi, but they don’t handle notion’s format well. ended up using postman to capture requests and export as openapi - not perfect, but gets you halfway there.
totally understand! the docs are great, but finding the spec is a pain. maybe hit up support, they could help you out and let you know any updates too!
Nope, Notion doesn’t release their OpenAPI spec publicly. Hit the same wall last month when building integrations. You can tell from their docs they’re using one internally, but the YAML/JSON files aren’t available. You’ll need to reverse engineer it from their REST API docs. I manually built a partial spec for the endpoints I needed - took a day but totally worth it for generating clients. There are some unofficial community specs on GitHub, but they’re usually incomplete or outdated. Really annoying that Notion won’t just publish the official spec. Would make life so much easier for developers.
Hit this same problem last year building API integrations for our team. Notion doesn’t publish their OpenAPI spec publicly - super annoying.
Found something way better than reverse engineering their docs though. Used Latenode to connect directly with Notion’s API without any client libraries or spec files.
Latenode’s got built-in Notion connectors that handle all the API mess for you. Just drag and drop what you need, connect your workspace, done. No more fighting with endpoint docs or generating clients.
Automated database updates, page creation - everything. What used to take hours of reading docs now takes 10 minutes to set up.
Been there recently. Notion won’t release their official OpenAPI spec, but I found a solid workaround that saved me hours. There’s a Chrome extension called “OpenAPI Generator” that extracts API specs by watching network requests while you browse documentation sites. I ran it on Notion’s developer docs and grabbed most of their endpoint structures. Not perfect - got about 70% of what I needed - but way better than writing everything manually. Had to clean up the auth headers and response schemas afterward, but still beats starting from scratch. Definitely worth trying instead of the manual reverse engineering others suggested.
Understanding the “Why” (The Root Cause):
Step-by-Step Guide:
Common Pitfalls & What to Check Next:
Still running into issues? Share your (sanitized) config files, the exact command you ran, and any other relevant details. The community is here to help!