Notion Enterprise RBAC

Overview

Implement enterprise-grade access control for Notion integrations. This covers the full OAuth 2.0 authorization flow for public integrations (multi-tenant), per-workspace token storage with encryption at rest, Notion's page-level permission model and how to handle ObjectNotFound vs RestrictedResource, an application-level role system (admin/editor/viewer) layered on top of Notion's permissions, comprehensive audit logging to a Notion database, and workspace deauthorization cleanup.

Prerequisites

• Notion public integration created at <https://www.notion.so/my-integrations> (for OAuth)
• @notionhq/client v2+ installed (npm install @notionhq/client)
• Python alternative: notion-client (pip install notion-client)
• Database for storing per-workspace tokens (PostgreSQL, DynamoDB, etc.)
• HTTPS endpoint for OAuth callback (required by Notion)

Instructions

The workflow has three steps. Each is summarized here with its key entry point; the complete, copy-ready code for all three lives in the full implementation reference.

Step 1: OAuth 2.0 Authorization Flow

Notion uses OAuth 2.0 for public integrations to reach external workspaces. Build an authorization URL with a random state for CSRF protection, redirect the user, then on callback verify the state and exchange the code for a workspace access token. Notion's token endpoint uses HTTP Basic auth with your client id and secret:

function getAuthorizationUrl(state: string): string {
  const params = new URLSearchParams({
    client_id: process.env.NOTION_OAUTH_CLIENT_ID!,
    response_type: 'code',
    owner: 'user',       // 'user' = user-level token, 'workspace' = workspace-level
    redirect_uri: process.env.NOTION_REDIRECT_URI!,
    state,               // CSRF protection — must verify on callback
  });
  return `https://api.notion.com/v1/oauth/authorize?${params}`;
}

The token exchange returns access_token, bot_id (the primary key per installation), workspace_id, and owner metadata. A Python equivalent and the full Express callback handler are in the implementation reference.

Step 2: Token Storage and Permission-Aware API Calls

Store one token per bot_id (encrypt access_token at rest — use KMS or column-level encryption in production), and construct a per-workspace Client on demand. Wrap every page read so Notion's permission model is handled explicitly rather than crashing:

// ObjectNotFound = page exists but is NOT shared with the integration
// (NOT the same as deleted); RestrictedResource = missing capability;
// Unauthorized = token revoked. See the reference for the full switch.
async function safePageAccess(notion: Client, pageId: string) { /* ... */ }

The full TokenStore class, the complete safePageAccess switch, and a discoverAccessiblePages search-pagination helper are in the implementation reference.

Step 3: Application-Level Roles and Audit Logging

Layer an application role system (admin/editor/viewer) on top of Notion's permissions via a ROLE_PERMISSIONS table and a requirePermission Express middleware, and record every authorization decision through an auditLog function that writes structured logs and optionally a Notion audit database. Audit writes must never crash the app (wrap in try/catch), and workspace deauthorization should log then revoke the stored token. The complete role table, middleware, route examples, auditLog, and handleDeauthorization are in the implementation reference.

Output

• Complete OAuth 2.0 flow for multi-workspace access (TypeScript + Python)
• Per-workspace token storage with encryption guidance
• Permission-aware API calls handling ObjectNotFound vs RestrictedResource
• Content discovery via search endpoint
• Application-level role system (admin/editor/viewer) with Express middleware
• Comprehensive audit logging to structured logs and optionally to Notion database
• Workspace deauthorization cleanup handler

Error Handling

Examples

A complete Express integration that wires the OAuth start and callback routes, persists the workspace token, records a workspace_authorized audit entry, and exposes a /workspaces listing endpoint is provided in the worked examples reference. It composes the getAuthorizationUrl, exchangeCodeForToken, tokenStore, and auditLog building blocks from the three Instructions steps into a runnable end-to-end flow.

Resources

• Full implementation walkthrough — copy-ready code for all three steps
• Worked Express example — end-to-end OAuth integration
• Notion OAuth Authorization — full OAuth guide
• Create a Token (OAuth) — token exchange endpoint
• Authentication Reference — auth header format
• Notion Capabilities — read/update/insert/delete
• Sharing and Permissions — page-level model
• Next step: for migrating data to and from Notion, see the notion-migration-deep-dive skill.