tiny-notion-mcp

A lightweight Notion MCP server that minimises token usage compared to the official Notion MCP.

Instead of returning raw Notion API JSON, every tool returns the smallest useful representation: pages come back as plain Markdown, search results as a single line per hit. In practice this cuts token consumption significantly on read-heavy workflows.

Tools

TOON format

Search results and page creation responses use the compact TOON (Title | Object | Optional Notes) format:

Page title | page-id | https://notion.so/... | parent:<parent-id>

This keeps search responses to a single line per result instead of hundreds of tokens of JSON.

Supported block types

Read (notion_read)

Inline formatting (bold, italic, bold-italic, strikethrough, underline, inline code, links) is preserved as Markdown.

Write (notion_write)

The same block types are supported on write. Markdown is parsed and appended to the target page as native Notion blocks.

Not yet implemented (v2)

The following block types are recognised by Notion but not yet handled. They are silently skipped on read and cannot be written:

• Dividers (---)

• Block quotes

• To-do / checkbox lists

• Callout blocks

• Toggle lists

• Table of contents

• Files, images, and videos

Known limitations

• Empty paragraph blocks between different list types are not round-tripped. When a page has an explicit empty paragraph separating, say, a bulleted list from a numbered list, that separator is lost on a read → write cycle. The "\n\n" that Markdown already places between blocks is visually equivalent but does not produce a Notion empty-paragraph block on write. This is an inherent limitation of a flat Markdown representation and will stay until a v2 format is designed.

• Table header flag is not round-tripped. Notion tables can be created without a column-header row (has_column_header: false). The current writer always sets has_column_header: true because standard Markdown tables imply a header. Tables written back will look identical but have the header flag set.

Requirements

• Python 3.12+

• A Notion integration token with read/write access to the pages you want to use

Installation

# From source
git clone https://github.com/your-username/tiny-notion-mcp
cd tiny-notion-mcp
pip install .

Or install directly with uv:

uv tool install .

Configuration

Set your Notion integration token as an environment variable:

export NOTION_TOKEN=secret_...

NOTION_API_KEY is accepted as an alias.

Claude Desktop / Claude Code

Add the server to your MCP configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "tiny-notion-mcp": {
      "command": "tiny-notion-mcp",
      "env": {
        "NOTION_TOKEN": "secret_..."
      }
    }
  }
}

If you installed with uv into an isolated environment, use the full path:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "tiny-notion-mcp": {
      "command": "uv",
      "args": ["run", "--", "tiny-notion-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "NOTION_TOKEN": "secret_..."
      }
    }
  }
}

Development

# Install with dev dependencies
pip install -e ".[dev]"

# Run tests
pytest

Tests use a stub NotionClient and make no real API calls.

Design goals

• Token efficiency first. Every response is as small as it can be while still being actionable.

• No intermediate files. All content is returned inline as strings — no temp files, no file-path references.

• Testable without a Notion account. The NotionClient interface is injected so the core logic can be tested in isolation.