xtieume Playwright Notion
Overview
Read Notion pages through a browser that is already logged in, by calling Notion's own internal web API from inside that browser tab.
Core principle: do not scrape the DOM, and do not copy the browser profile. Attach to a running browser over the Chrome DevTools Protocol (CDP), then call the same endpoints the Notion web app itself calls.
Read-only. The endpoints used only fetch data or produce a download; nothing in Notion is created, edited, or deleted.
When to use
- No Notion API token available (company workspace, no integration allowed).
- UI Export is disabled/greyed out or absent because the account is read-only or guest.
- MCP Notion server is not an option; only browser access exists.
- A previous scrape returned garbage markdown: duplicated tables, doubled cells, sidebar links inside the body, lost properties.
- A Playwright/Puppeteer script keeps landing on Notion's login page even though the user is logged in normally.
Do NOT use when an API token or working MCP Notion connection exists — use those, they are simpler and supported.
Two hard-won facts that dictate the approach
Skipping either one wastes an hour. Both were verified by failure on macOS.
1. Copying the browser profile can never carry the session. Chromium 127+ encrypts cookies with App-Bound Encryption: the key is bound to the original profile and the OS, not stored in the copied files. A copied profile shows os_crypt: {} in Local State, cannot decrypt the original cookies, and Notion serves the login screen. Copying Cookies + Local State + Preferences from Default, Profile 1, and Profile 2 all fail the same way. Do not try it — attach to the real running browser instead.
2. Scraping the rendered DOM produces wrong markdown. Notion nests .notion-selectable inside .notion-selectable, so a selector-based walk emits every table once per nesting level (typically 3x) and every cell twice. It also sweeps the sidebar navigation into the page body and drops all page properties. Use the API instead — that is the fix, not a better selector.
Two scripts: try export first
| Script | Endpoint | Output | Use |
|---|---|---|---|
scripts/export.mjs |
enqueueTask (exportBlock) → zip |
Notion's own markdown + images downloaded | Try this first |
scripts/download.mjs |
loadPageChunk + queryCollection |
markdown built by a local converter | Fallback if export is blocked |
A disabled Export button does not mean export is blocked. In many workspaces the button is only hidden client-side by role, while the server still accepts the export task. That was true in the case this skill was built from: the UI offered no Export, yet enqueueTask returned 200 and produced a proper zip. So always test export.mjs on one page before falling back.
Native export is better where it works: it resolves person mentions to real names (佐藤珠未/Tamami Sato, not @user), resolves page mentions to titles plus URLs (not [[page]]), and downloads embedded images into a folder beside the markdown.
Fall back to download.mjs only when export.mjs reports an enqueueTask 401/Unauthorized — that means the workspace really did disable export server-side (an Enterprise setting). download.mjs still works there, because it uses nothing more than the read access the browser already has.
Workflow
Step 1 — start the browser with CDP enabled.
scripts/start-browser.sh brave 9222 # or: chrome | edge
The script lists available profiles, closes any running instance (its profile lock blocks the debug port), relaunches detached against the real profile dir, and waits for the port. It is idempotent — if CDP already listens it exits immediately.
This closes the user's browser windows. Say so before running it, and re-run it whenever a later step reports a connection refusal.
If it reports remote debugging requires a non-default data directory, that browser build refuses CDP on its default profile dir. Try another browser — Brave commonly works where Chrome refuses.
Step 2 — install script deps once.
cd scripts && npm install
Step 3 — collect the target URLs. One per line in a plain text file. Any Notion URL form works; both scripts extract the 32-hex page id themselves, so ?v=...&source=copy_link query strings can stay.
https://app.notion.com/p/883f894a7fd44a1b9bfa0d6af0ff4a28
https://app.notion.com/p/RQ-01-31136f82f94b4a16adb8b434404db850
Ask the user for the list. Do not guess links — sidebar <a href> scraping returns the navigation menu (a dozen or so database views), not the rows the user means.
Step 4 — smoke-test one URL. Run the chosen script against a single-URL file and open the output. A whole batch against a logged-out browser produces a directory of useless files.
node scripts/export.mjs one-url.txt ./out 9222
If it fails with Unauthorized, switch to scripts/download.mjs and smoke-test that instead.
Step 5 — run the full list.
node scripts/export.mjs urls.txt ./notion-docs 9222 # preferred
node scripts/download.mjs urls.txt ./notion-docs 9222 # fallback
NOTION_RECURSIVE=1 on export.mjs exports each page's subtree as well. Leave it off by default — on a database page it pulls the entire table.
Step 6 — verify. Count OK lines against the URL count and report any FAIL/GAVE UP line. Never report success from an exit code alone.
grep -c OK /tmp/notion_export.log # export.mjs
grep -E "FAIL|GAVE UP" /tmp/notion_export.log
Quick reference
| Need | Command |
|---|---|
| Start/verify CDP | scripts/start-browser.sh brave 9222 |
| Check CDP is up | curl -s http://127.0.0.1:9222/json/version |
| Install deps | cd scripts && npm install |
| Native export (preferred) | node scripts/export.mjs urls.txt ./out 9222 |
| Converter (fallback) | node scripts/download.mjs urls.txt ./out 9222 |
| Check results | grep -c OK /tmp/notion_export.log |
Logs default to /tmp/notion_export.log and /tmp/notion_dl.log; override with NOTION_DL_LOG.
What the output contains
export.mjs — Notion's own export, unpacked: one .md per page under a workspace-named folder, plus a sibling folder of downloaded images per page. Properties appear as a plain key/value block at the top, mentions and relations resolved to names and URLs.
download.mjs — one .md per page named by its Notion title (unsafe characters replaced, duplicates suffixed (2)), containing title, source URL, a ## Properties section, headings, nested lists, to-do checkboxes, toggles, quotes, callouts as > [!NOTE], code blocks with language tags, equations as $$, dividers, tables with correct columns (inline tables and embedded database views via queryCollection), and links/images/files as URLs. Its known limits, worth stating rather than hiding: page mentions render as [[page]] and person mentions as @user, because the API returns ids there.
Common mistakes
| Mistake | What happens | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Assuming a greyed-out Export button means export is blocked | Skips the best path for no reason | Test export.mjs on one page first |
| Copying the browser profile to a temp dir | Login screen, every time | Attach to the running browser over CDP |
Scraping .notion-selectable / DOM |
Tables 3x, cells 2x, sidebar in body, no properties | Use the API scripts |
open -a "Brave Browser" --args --remote-debugging-port=9222 |
Flags silently dropped, port never opens | Exec the binary path directly (the script does) |
| Leaving the browser running when launching with CDP | Profile lock blocks the port, with no error at the port | Close it first (the script does) |
waitUntil: 'networkidle' |
30s timeout — Notion syncs continuously | domcontentloaded + a short fixed wait |
| Reusing one tab for 30+ pages | Renderer crashes; every later page fails | Both scripts recycle the tab every 5 pages and retry 3x |
Plain unzip on the export zip |
Illegal byte sequence, Japanese/Vietnamese names destroyed |
Decode cp437→utf-8 (export.mjs does) |
| Scraping the sidebar for the URL list | Gets database views, not the wanted rows | Ask the user for explicit URLs |
Piping a long run through tail |
Output buffered, progress invisible | Log to a file, grep it |
Red flags — stop and re-read this skill
- About to copy
Cookies,Local State, or a whole profile folder → will not work, see fact 1. - About to write a
querySelectorwalk over Notion blocks → will produce duplicates, see fact 2. - About to skip
export.mjsbecause the UI hides the Export button → test it anyway. - About to launch a browser with
open -a ... --args→ flags get dropped. - About to report "downloaded all pages" without grepping the log → verify first.
Warn the user before starting
- Their browser will be closed and relaunched; unsaved work in it is at risk.
- While the run is active the browser listens on a local debug port, so any local process can drive it. Restart the browser normally afterwards.
- These are internal company documents being copied to a local disk. Whether that fits their company policy is their call to make, not something to assume.