pagesdown

Download your Notion content to local Markdown files. Beautiful guided CLI, clean output, ready for AI coding agents.

Why?

Notion's MCP server and API are token-expensive. If you use AI coding agents like Claude Code, Codex, or OpenClaw, having your Notion content as local Markdown files is dramatically cheaper and faster.

Prerequisites

Node.js 20 or later — download from nodejs.org (click the big green button, run the installer).

Quick Start

npx pagesdown

That's it. The tool will walk you through everything.

Setup Your Notion Integration (2 minutes)

The CLI guides you through this, but here's the overview:

1. Create an internal integration

Go to: notion.so/profile/integrations/internal/form/new-integration

• Name: anything you want (e.g. "export-to-fs") — cannot contain the word "notion"
• Associated workspace: select yours
• Icon: skip it
• Click Create

2. Set capabilities

On the next page, under Capabilities:

• Content capabilities:
  • Read content — check this (the only one you need)
  • Update content — uncheck
  • Insert content — uncheck
• Comment capabilities:
  • Read comments — uncheck
  • Insert comments — uncheck
• User capabilities:
  • Select "No user information"

Click Save.

3. Copy your token

Copy the Internal Integration Secret (starts with ntn_).

4. Share pages with the integration

Open any page you want to download in Notion:

• Click the ••• menu at the top right
• Select Connections
• Add your integration

Sharing a parent page automatically shares all its children.

What You Get

~/Desktop/notion-export/
├── Project Alpha/
│   ├── Project Alpha.md
│   ├── Meeting Notes/
│   │   ├── Meeting Notes.md
│   │   └── assets/
│   │       └── screenshot.png
│   └── Design Doc/
│       └── Design Doc.md
└── Personal/
    ├── Personal.md
    └── Reading List/
        └── Reading List.md

• Pages become .md files with clean Markdown
• Folder hierarchy mirrors your Notion structure
• Images and files are downloaded to assets/ folders with working relative links
• Databases are exported with properties as YAML frontmatter

Features

• Guided setup — walks you through creating a Notion integration
• Select specific pages — don't have to download everything
• Cross-platform — macOS, Windows, Linux
• Token persistence — saves your token for next time
• Rate limit handling — respects Notion's API limits automatically
• Progress updates — see what's being downloaded in real time

License

MIT