Notion Upgrade & Migration

Overview

Step-by-step guide for upgrading

@notionhq/client

notion-client

2022-06-28

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 — check installed SDK version
npm ls @notionhq/client

# Node.js — check latest available
npm view @notionhq/client version

# Python — check installed SDK version
pip show notion-client 2>/dev/null | grep Version

# Python — check latest available
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

2022-06-28

SDK version history — key milestones:

2.2.0

notion.comments.create

notion.comments.list

2.2.3

2.2.4

2.2.13

2.2.15

API version timeline:

2022-02-22

2022-06-28

Step 2: Perform the Upgrade

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

Node.js upgrade:

# Create upgrade branch
git checkout -b upgrade/notionhq-client-$(npm view @notionhq/client version)

# Upgrade to latest
npm install @notionhq/client@latest

# Review what changed
npm ls @notionhq/client
git diff package.json package-lock.json

Python upgrade:

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

pip install --upgrade notion-client

# Verify
pip show notion-client | grep Version

Breaking changes to check after any major version bump:

// 1. Import paths — endpoint types moved in some releases
// OLD (pre-2.2.x):
import type { QueryDatabaseResponse } from '@notionhq/client/build/src/api-endpoints';
// CURRENT (2.2.x):
import type {
  PageObjectResponse,
  DatabaseObjectResponse,
  BlockObjectResponse,
  QueryDatabaseResponse,
} from '@notionhq/client/build/src/api-endpoints';

// 2. Error handling imports are stable across all 2.x versions
import { Client, isNotionClientError, APIErrorCode, ClientErrorCode } from '@notionhq/client';

// 3. New property types — code must handle unknown types gracefully
function extractProperty(prop: any): string {
  switch (prop.type) {
    case 'title': return prop.title.map((t: any) => t.plain_text).join('');
    case 'rich_text': return prop.rich_text.map((t: any) => t.plain_text).join('');
    case 'status': return prop.status?.name ?? '';       // Added in 2.2.3
    case 'unique_id': return String(prop.unique_id?.number ?? ''); // Added in 2.2.4
    default: return `[unhandled: ${prop.type}]`;
  }
}

// 4. Pin API version explicitly for reproducible behavior
const notion = new Client({
  auth: process.env.NOTION_TOKEN,
  notionVersion: '2022-06-28',  // Always pin — do not rely on SDK default
});

Python breaking changes:

from notion_client import Client, APIResponseError

# Pin API version explicitly
notion = Client(
    auth=os.environ["NOTION_TOKEN"],
    notion_version="2022-06-28",  # Explicit pin
)

# New in recent versions: comments API
comments = notion.comments.list(block_id=page_id)

# Status property (requires SDK that supports it)
# Returns: {"type": "status", "status": {"name": "In Progress", "color": "blue"}}

Step 3: Verify and Test the Upgrade

Run targeted verification tests to confirm nothing broke. Test each API surface your application uses.

import { Client } from '@notionhq/client';

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

// Test 1: Authentication and user listing
async function verifyAuth(): Promise<void> {
  const { results } = await notion.users.list({});
  console.log(`Auth OK — ${results.length} users found`);
}

// Test 2: Database query (most common operation)
async function verifyDatabaseQuery(databaseId: string): Promise<void> {
  const response = await notion.databases.query({
    database_id: databaseId,
    page_size: 5,
  });
  console.log(`Query OK — ${response.results.length} pages, has_more=${response.has_more}`);

  // Verify property types are still parsed correctly
  for (const page of response.results) {
    if ('properties' in page) {
      const types = Object.values(page.properties).map(p => p.type);
      console.log(`  Property types: ${[...new Set(types)].join(', ')}`);
    }
  }
}

// Test 3: Page creation and archival (write path)
async function verifyPageLifecycle(databaseId: string): Promise<void> {
  const page = await notion.pages.create({
    parent: { database_id: databaseId },
    properties: {
      Name: { title: [{ text: { content: `Upgrade test ${Date.now()}` } }] },
    },
  });
  console.log(`Create OK — page ${page.id}`);
  await notion.pages.update({ page_id: page.id, archived: true });
  console.log('Archive OK');
}

// Test 4: Block operations (read + append)
async function verifyBlocks(pageId: string): Promise<void> {
  const { results } = await notion.blocks.children.list({ block_id: pageId });
  console.log(`Block list OK — ${results.length} blocks`);
  await notion.blocks.children.append({
    block_id: pageId,
    children: [{
      paragraph: { rich_text: [{ text: { content: 'Upgrade verification block' } }] },
    }],
  });
  console.log('Block append OK');
}

// Test 5: Comments API (available since SDK 2.2.0)
async function verifyComments(pageId: string): Promise<void> {
  try {
    const { results } = await notion.comments.list({ block_id: pageId });
    console.log(`Comments OK — ${results.length} comments`);
  } catch (err) {
    console.log('Comments API not available in this SDK version');
  }
}

// Run all verification
await verifyAuth();
await verifyDatabaseQuery(process.env.TEST_DB_ID!);
await verifyPageLifecycle(process.env.TEST_DB_ID!);
await verifyBlocks(process.env.TEST_PAGE_ID!);
await verifyComments(process.env.TEST_PAGE_ID!);

After all tests pass, merge the upgrade branch:

npm test                  # Run project test suite
git add -A
git commit -m "chore: upgrade @notionhq/client to $(npm ls @notionhq/client --depth=0 | grep @notionhq)"
git checkout main && git merge -

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

TypeError: Cannot read properties of undefined

APIResponseError: Could not find ...

notionVersion is not a valid API version

2022-06-28

api-endpoints

node_modules/@notionhq/client/build/src/api-endpoints.d.ts

ENOTFOUND api.notion.com

curl https://api.notion.com/v1/users/me

pip install

notion-client

pip install --upgrade pip

Examples

Rollback After Failed Upgrade

# Revert to exact previous version
npm install @notionhq/client@2.2.14 --save-exact

# Restore any source changes
git checkout -- src/

# Verify rollback
npm test
npm ls @notionhq/client

Adopting Comments API After Upgrade

// Available since @notionhq/client 2.2.0
// Add a comment to a page
await notion.comments.create({
  parent: { page_id: pageId },
  rich_text: [{ text: { content: 'Automated review comment from CI' } }],
});

// List all comments on a page
const { results: comments } = await notion.comments.list({
  block_id: pageId,
});
for (const comment of comments) {
  const text = comment.rich_text.map(rt => rt.plain_text).join('');
  console.log(`${comment.created_by.id}: ${text}`);
}

Detecting New Property Types in Existing Databases

// After upgrade, scan databases for new property types your code may not handle
async function auditPropertyTypes(databaseId: string): Promise<void> {
  const db = await notion.databases.retrieve({ database_id: databaseId });
  const knownTypes = new Set([
    'title', 'rich_text', 'number', 'select', 'multi_select',
    'date', 'checkbox', 'url', 'email', 'phone_number',
    'formula', 'relation', 'rollup', 'people', 'files',
    'created_time', 'last_edited_time', 'created_by', 'last_edited_by',
    'status', 'unique_id',  // Newer types
  ]);

  for (const [name, prop] of Object.entries(db.properties)) {
    if (!knownTypes.has(prop.type)) {
      console.warn(`Unknown property type "${prop.type}" on "${name}" — add handler`);
    }
  }
}

Deprecation Monitoring Script

#!/usr/bin/env bash
# Check for known deprecated patterns in your codebase
echo "=== Notion SDK Deprecation Audit ==="

# Check for deprecated header format
grep -rn "Notion-Version" --include="*.ts" --include="*.js" src/ 2>/dev/null && \
  echo "WARN: Raw Notion-Version header found — use client notionVersion option instead"

# Check for untyped page responses
grep -rn "as any" --include="*.ts" src/ 2>/dev/null | grep -i notion && \
  echo "WARN: Type assertions on Notion responses — use PageObjectResponse type"

# Check SDK version against latest
CURRENT=$(npm ls @notionhq/client --depth=0 2>/dev/null | grep @notionhq | sed 's/.*@//')
LATEST=$(npm view @notionhq/client version 2>/dev/null)
if [ "$CURRENT" != "$LATEST" ]; then
  echo "UPDATE: Running $CURRENT, latest is $LATEST"
else
  echo "OK: Running latest ($CURRENT)"
fi

Resources

• Notion SDK Releases — changelog for every

  @notionhq/client

  version
• API Versioning — version lifecycle and header format
• API Changelog — new endpoints, properties, and breaking changes
• 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

notion-rate-limits