12.5 Notion for Documentation

Course: Claude Code - Power User Section: MCP Fundamentals Video Length: 2-5 minutes Presenter: Daniel Treasure

Opening Hook

Your team's documentation lives in Notion—wikis, specs, runbooks, onboarding guides. With the Notion MCP server, Claude Code can pull that knowledge directly into your coding session. No more tab-switching to look up how something's supposed to work.

Key Talking Points

1. Why Connect Notion? (The Problem It Solves)

Developers constantly reference internal docs while coding: API specs, architecture decisions, style guides, onboarding notes
Without integration, it's copy-paste from browser tabs or relying on memory
With MCP, Claude can query your Notion workspace directly and use that context while coding

What to say: "Every team I've worked with has documentation scattered across Notion pages. The problem is, when you're deep in code, you don't want to stop and go hunt for the spec. With the Notion MCP server, Claude can go get it for you."

What to show on screen: Show a Notion workspace with a few pages visible (API docs, architecture decisions, onboarding guide), then switch to Claude Code.

2. Setting Up the Notion MCP Server

Add the Notion MCP server via claude mcp add
Authenticate via OAuth through the browser
Grant access to specific Notion pages or the entire workspace

What to say: "Setup takes about two minutes. Add the server, authenticate in your browser, and you're connected. Notion uses OAuth, so you'll click through a permissions screen to grant Claude access."

What to show on screen: Run the claude mcp add command for Notion, show the OAuth browser flow, then verify with /mcp in Claude Code.

3. What You Can Do with It

Access wikis: Pull internal process docs, standards, and guidelines into context
View specifications: Reference technical and product specs while implementing features
Query knowledge bases: Search across team FAQs, best practices, and institutional knowledge
Claude can read Notion pages and use their content to inform code generation, reviews, and decisions

What to say: "Ask Claude something like 'what does our API design guide say about error handling?' and it'll pull the answer directly from your Notion workspace. No tab-switching, no guessing."

What to show on screen: Demo asking Claude a question that requires Notion context. Show Claude fetching a Notion page and using its content to answer or generate code.

4. Practical Use Cases

Implementation: "Implement the user profile endpoint following our API spec in Notion"
Onboarding: New team members can ask Claude about team processes documented in Notion
Code review: Claude can check changes against architectural decisions recorded in Notion
Migration: Reference old specs while building new implementations

What to say: "The most powerful use case is implementation. Instead of reading the spec yourself and then writing code, you tell Claude 'build this endpoint following our API spec' and it reads the spec and implements it in one step."

What to show on screen: Show a prompt that references a Notion document, and Claude using that context to generate code or answer a question.

Demo Plan

Show the Notion workspace — Open Notion in a browser, show a few pages (e.g., "API Design Guide", "Team Coding Standards")
~15 seconds
Add the Notion MCP server claude mcp add --transport http notion https://mcp.notion.com/mcp
~15 seconds
Authenticate — Open Claude Code, run /mcp, click through the Notion OAuth flow
~20 seconds
Query a Notion page — Ask Claude: "What does our API design guide say about error response formats?"
Show Claude fetching the Notion page and returning the relevant section
~30 seconds
Use Notion context for code generation — Ask: "Create an error handling middleware that follows our team's API standards from Notion"
Show Claude reading the spec and generating code that matches
~30 seconds
Wrap up — Highlight that this works with any Notion workspace content
~10 seconds

Code Examples & Commands

Add Notion MCP server:

claude mcp add --transport http notion https://mcp.notion.com/mcp

Check server status:

/mcp

Example prompts that leverage Notion:

What does our API design guide say about authentication?
Implement the user profile endpoint following the spec in Notion
Check my changes against our architectural decisions
What's the onboarding process for new backend developers?
Summarize our team's coding standards from the wiki

Project-level MCP config (.mcp.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "notion": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://mcp.notion.com/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Gotchas & Tips

Access control matters: Claude can only access Notion pages you've granted permission to during OAuth setup. If Claude can't find a page, check your Notion integration settings.
Keep Notion pages well-structured: Claude works best with clearly organized pages that use headings, bullet points, and sections. Messy pages produce messy context.
Be specific in your prompts: "Check our API guide" is vague. "What does our API design guide say about pagination?" gets better results because Claude can target the right section.
Share the MCP config with your team: Add Notion to your .mcp.json so every team member gets the same documentation access. Each person authenticates individually.
Large workspaces: If your Notion workspace is very large, Claude may need guidance on which pages to look at. Mention the page name or topic explicitly.
Notion pages update in real-time: Unlike CLAUDE.md (which is read at session start), Notion content is fetched live. If someone updates a spec mid-session, Claude will see the latest version.

Lead-out

"That wraps up MCP Fundamentals. You've seen how to connect Claude Code to GitHub, Linear, Figma, and Notion—turning it from a coding tool into a development platform that understands your entire workflow. In the next course, Enterprise Development, we'll go deeper: building custom MCP servers, CI/CD automation, and deploying Claude Code across your organization."

Reference URLs

Prep Reading

Official Claude Code MCP documentation for setup commands and configuration
Notion's API documentation and integration permissions model
Review how OAuth works for MCP servers (covered in 12.1)
Consider setting up a sample Notion workspace with API docs and standards for the demo

Notes for Daniel: This is the final video in Course 2. End on a high note—show how all four MCP integrations (GitHub, Linear, Figma, Notion) together create a connected development workflow. The lead-out should make viewers excited about what's coming in Course 3 while feeling satisfied with what they've learned. Keep the demo practical and relatable—every developer has dealt with documentation scattered across tools.

Quick Reference