Notion LifeOS Skill

A Notion life management system based on the PARA method and Make Time framework.

When NOT to Use This Skill

• Notion product questions — pricing, features, API documentation, workspace admin
• Generic productivity advice — "how should I organize my life" without intent to store/retrieve data
• Other note-taking apps — unless user wants to migrate data INTO Notion LifeOS
• Database schema modification — creating new databases, adding/removing properties

Core Principles

• Capture first, organize later — Never let processing block input
• Proactive information surfacing — Use Relations to automatically surface information where it's needed

See JEFF_SU_SUMMARY.md for detailed design philosophy.

Reference Files

Read these as needed — do NOT load them all upfront:

File	When to read
references/schema.md	Before creating/updating any entry (get field names & types)
references/mcp-guide.md	When using MCP tools (Claude Code / Claude.ai)
references/api-guide.md	When using REST API (OpenClaw / Codex / other agents)
references/query-guide.md	When querying/filtering data (tasks by date, done status, etc.)
references/advanced.md	For composite intents or error handling

Operation Guide

• With Notion MCP tools → See references/mcp-guide.md
• With Notion API access → See references/api-guide.md
• For structured queries (filter by date, checkbox, select) → Always use scripts or REST API. MCP notion-search is semantic only and CANNOT filter by property values.

Intent Recognition & Database Mapping

User Intent	Target DB	Method
"Take a note about XXX"	Notes	MCP / API
"Add a task: XXX"	Task	scripts/create-task.sh / MCP / API
"The best thing today was..."	Make Time	MCP / API (check dedup first)
"Create project XXX"	Projects	MCP / API
"Today's tasks"	Task	scripts/query-tasks.sh --date today
"Any unfinished tasks?"	Task	scripts/query-tasks.sh --undone
"Today's unfinished tasks"	Task	scripts/query-tasks.sh --date today --undone
"Search notes about XX"	Notes	MCP notion-search
"Add a resource/reference"	Resources	MCP / API

For Note Type selection and Make Time journal extraction logic, see references/query-guide.md. For composite intents (multiple actions in one message), see references/advanced.md.

Business Rules

1. Database IDs: Read ~/.config/notion-lifeos/CONFIG.private.md for IDs (fallback: CONFIG.private.md in skill dir). If missing, search for "LifeOS" root page (NOT "LifeOS Template"). Last resort: guide user to references/setup.md.
2. Schema-first: Fetch database schema before first write in a session — confirm property names and allowed select values.
3. Make Time dedup: Always check if today's entry exists before creating (scripts/check_today_journal.sh). Update if exists.
4. Date format: ISO-8601 only (e.g., 2026-03-08).
5. Relations: Require target page ID — search for it first.
6. Post-op confirmation: Always confirm results to the user.

Gotchas (Common Pitfalls)

MCP-Specific

• Checkbox: __YES__ / __NO__, NOT true/false
• URL property: Prefix with userDefined: (e.g., userDefined:URL)
• Date property: Split into date:PropName:start, date:PropName:end, date:PropName:is_datetime
• multi_select: Comma-separated string, NOT array
• notion-search: Cannot filter by property values — use scripts/REST API

REST API-Specific

• database_id vs data_source_id: REST API uses database_id, MCP uses data_source_id — they differ
• Date filter: ISO-8601 only, never natural language

General

• Select values change: NEVER hardcode — always fetch schema first
• Duplicate DB names: Always use databases under the LifeOS root page