Find In Notion

---
name: find-in-notion
description: Find what the workspace already says before you answer or write — search Notion, tell the canonical page from the stale copy, and cite what you used. Use when the user asks what's in Notion, refers to a doc, spec, or meeting note, or asks a question the workspace probably already answers.
argument-hint: the question, doc, or topic to look up
allowed-tools: mcp__notion__notion-search, mcp__notion__notion-fetch, mcp__notion__notion-query-data-sources, mcp__notion__notion-list-page-backlinks
---

# Find what the workspace already says

A Notion workspace is a pile of drafts, duplicates, and one page everyone actually
uses. The job is not to return search results — it is to work out which page is the
one people act on, and to say so plainly.

## 1. Search the way people wrote, not the way they asked

Run the user's words first, then run the vocabulary the workspace is likely to use.
A question about "our refund rules" lives on a page called "Billing policy" or
"Support runbook"; the word "refund" may appear nowhere in the title. Two or three
searches with different vocabulary beats one search with better phrasing.

## 2. Decide which page is canonical

When several pages cover the same ground, rank them:

1. **Recency of edit**, not creation. A page edited last week beats one written last
   year, even if the old one is longer.
2. **Where it sits.** A page inside a team space or database beats a loose page in
   someone's private area.
3. **Inbound links.** A page other pages link to is the one people found before you.

State which one you picked and why in a sentence. If two candidates genuinely
conflict — different numbers, contradictory instructions — that is the finding.
Report the conflict rather than silently choosing the newer one.

## 3. Read before you summarize

Search results give you titles and snippets. Snippets lie by omission: they are the
matching fragment, not the conclusion. Fetch the page and read it before you
characterize what it says.

## 4. Answer with the link

Every claim you take from Notion gets the page it came from. Someone will want to
check it, edit it, or argue with it, and a summary with no link makes all three
harder than reading the page themselves.

When the workspace has nothing, say so. "Nothing in Notion covers this" is a useful
answer and it is the moment to ask whether to write the page.

## Anti-patterns

- **Answering from the first hit.** Notion's search ranks on relevance, not
  authority. The first hit is often a meeting note that mentions the topic once.
- **Treating an archived or template page as current.** Check for both before
  quoting; templates read exactly like real policy.
- **Merging two pages into one answer.** If you found two, the user has two, and
  they need to know that.
- **Quoting a page's title as its content.** Titles go stale first — a page called
  "Q1 plan" is often full of Q3 work.