Migration: From Notion

Notion stores notes in its own block-based format on Notion's servers. Migrating means exporting to Markdown, fixing block-shape mismatches, and re-establishing links. About an hour for a typical workspace.

Step 1 — Export from Notion

1. In Notion, go to Settings & members → Settings → Export all workspace content (or right-click any page → Export for a smaller subset).
2. Choose Markdown & CSV as the format.
3. Choose Include subpages = on; Include content = Everything.
4. Click Export. Notion emails you a .zip when ready (workspace exports take a few minutes).

The zip contains one .md per page, one folder per parent page, and a separate .csv for every database.

Step 2 — Unzip + place into your vault

cd ~/Documents
unzip ~/Downloads/Notion-Export-*.zip -d MyVault

Open Binderus, point the data directory at ~/Documents/MyVault. You'll see your notes immediately.

Step 3 — Fix block-style mismatches

Notion's Markdown export covers most blocks but a few render oddly:

• Toggles (Notion's ▶): exported as headings + body. They become regular paragraphs in Binderus — usually fine.
• Database rows: exported as a .csv. Binderus doesn't have inline databases yet; either keep the CSV alongside as data or convert to a simple Markdown table.
• Callouts: Notion's callouts export as block-quotes. To get the styled callout look, change > 💡 ... to > [!tip]\n> ... — see the callout syntax.
• Embeds (Figma, YouTube, etc.): exported as a plain link. Binderus shows rich previews on hover.
• Files / images: exported into the per-page folder; the relative links work as-is.

Step 4 — Convert Notion @-links to wiki links

Notion's internal page links are exported as ordinary Markdown links: [Page Name](Page%20Name%2012ab34cd.md). Binderus reads these — they work as-is — but you'll want to convert to wiki links for the backlink graph and cleaner formatting:

# From any shell, in your vault folder
find . -name "*.md" -exec sed -i '' -E 's/\[([^]]+)\]\(([^)]+)\.md\)/[[\1]]/g' {} +

This rewrites [Foo](Foo.md) to [[Foo]]. Test on a backup first.

Step 5 — Verify

• Open 5-10 random notes; confirm headings, lists, code blocks render correctly.
• Check the backlinks panel — wiki links should show as backlinks bidirectionally.
• Pick a CSV-exported database; decide whether to keep, convert, or delete.

What doesn't carry over

• Real-time collaboration / comments / mentions — Binderus is single-user.
• Inline databases / kanban / calendar views — Binderus doesn't have these. Use folders + tags + the file list.
• Notion AI history — gone with the export.
• Page version history — Notion keeps this server-side; the export is the current version only. Layer git on top of your vault if you want history going forward.