Notion Upgrade & Migration

Overview

Step-by-step guide for upgrading @notionhq/client (Node.js) and notion-client (Python) SDK versions, migrating between Notion API versions, handling breaking changes, and adopting newly released features. Covers the current stable API version 2022-06-28 and the SDK feature timeline through v2.x.

The workflow is three phases — audit what you run today, upgrade on an isolated branch while fixing breaking changes, then verify every API surface before merging. Deep code (the full breaking-change catalog, the verification suite, and worked recipes) lives in references/ so this file stays a scannable playbook.

Prerequisites

• Existing project with @notionhq/client or notion-client installed
• Git repository with clean working tree (no uncommitted changes)
• Test suite covering Notion API calls (or willingness to add verification tests)
• NOTION_TOKEN environment variable configured

Instructions

Step 1: Audit Current Versions and API Surface

Determine what you are running today before changing anything.

# Node.js — installed vs latest SDK version
npm ls @notionhq/client
npm view @notionhq/client version

# Python — installed vs latest SDK version
pip show notion-client 2>/dev/null | grep Version
pip index versions notion-client 2>/dev/null | head -1

# Find which API version your code specifies
grep -rn "notionVersion\|Notion-Version\|notion_version" src/ lib/ app/ 2>/dev/null

Record the current SDK version and API version before proceeding. If no notionVersion is set explicitly, the SDK uses its built-in default (typically 2022-06-28 for current releases).

SDK version history — key milestones:

API version timeline:

Step 2: Perform the Upgrade

Create an isolated branch, upgrade the package, and address breaking changes before merging.

# Node.js
git checkout -b upgrade/notionhq-client-$(npm view @notionhq/client version)
npm install @notionhq/client@latest
git diff package.json package-lock.json

# Python
git checkout -b upgrade/notion-client-$(pip show notion-client 2>/dev/null | grep Version | awk '{print $2}')
pip install --upgrade notion-client
pip show notion-client | grep Version

After any major version bump, check four things: endpoint-type import paths (they moved in some releases), error-handling imports (stable across 2.x), new property types your extraction logic must handle gracefully (status added in 2.2.3, unique_id in 2.2.4), and an explicitly pinned notionVersion so behavior is reproducible instead of tracking the SDK default. The complete before/after code for Node.js and Python is in breaking-changes.md.

Step 3: Verify and Test the Upgrade

Run targeted verification tests to confirm nothing broke — test each API surface your application uses (auth, database query, page create/archive, block read/append, comments), then run the project suite and merge. Skeleton:

const notion = new Client({ auth: process.env.NOTION_TOKEN, notionVersion: '2022-06-28' });

async function verifyDatabaseQuery(databaseId: string) {
  const res = await notion.databases.query({ database_id: databaseId, page_size: 5 });
  console.log(`Query OK — ${res.results.length} pages, has_more=${res.has_more}`);
}

The full five-test verification suite plus the merge commands are in verification.md.

Output

• SDK upgraded to the latest stable release with exact version pinned in package.json
• API version explicitly set in client initialization (not relying on SDK default)
• New property types (status, unique_id) handled in extraction logic
• All existing API calls verified — database queries, page CRUD, block operations
• Upgrade branch merged with clean test run

Error Handling

Examples

Common follow-ons — each is a full recipe in examples.md:

• Rollback after a failed upgrade — pin the exact previous SDK version, restore source, re-test.
• Adopting the Comments API (SDK 2.2.0+) — create and list comments on a page.
• Detecting new property types — scan existing databases for types your extraction code does not yet handle.
• Deprecation monitoring — a bash audit for raw Notion-Version headers, untyped responses, and SDK version drift.

Resources

• Notion SDK Releases — changelog for every @notionhq/client version
• API Versioning — version lifecycle and header format
• Python notion-client — PyPI page with version history
• API Status — check for ongoing incidents before debugging upgrade issues

Next Steps

After upgrading, apply production patterns from notion-sdk-patterns and verify rate limit handling with notion-rate-limits.