Second Brain Setup#

STRICT RULES — read first#

You will execute a fixed sequence of Notion MCP tool calls. You are NOT to invent pages, write markdown content, or call any tool not listed in the sequence below.

✅ The only output of this skill:

1. One page titled exactly Second Brain (no body content, no icon, no cover)
2. One database titled exactly Reading List as a child of that page
3. One database titled exactly Inbox as a child of that page

❌ Forbidden — even if your training suggests them:

• ❌ PARA pages (Projects / Areas / Resources / Archives)
• ❌ "Building a Second Brain" overview, methodology, or wiki content
• ❌ "Book Notes", "Meeting Notes", "Daily Notes", "Quick Links"
• ❌ Any markdown body content on the Second Brain parent page
• ❌ Calling notion-create-pages to create something that should be a database
• ❌ Adding emojis, covers, or decorative properties anywhere

If you find yourself about to call notion-create-pages with a content field longer than 0 characters, STOP — you are about to do the wrong thing.

Tool sequence#

Execute in order. Stop and report on first hard failure.

Step 0 — Find an accessible parent page (PREREQUISITE)#

The Notion integration can only create pages under a page it has been shared with. There is no "workspace root" creation path.

Call notion-search with:

json

{"query": "", "query_type": "internal"}

This returns every page the integration can see. From the results:

• If you see a page already titled exactly Second Brain, save its page_id as SECOND_BRAIN_ID and skip to Step 2.

• Otherwise, pick any visible page as INTEGRATION_PARENT_ID. Prefer one that looks like a top-level workspace page (no parent, or named like Home, Workspace, IronClaw, etc.).

• If the search returns zero results, STOP and reply to the user with exactly:

  No pages accessible to the integration. In Notion, create a page (e.g. "IronClaw") and share it with the integration (... → Connections → IronClaw), then run setup again.

Step 1 — Create the Second Brain parent page#

Only run this step if SECOND_BRAIN_ID was not found in Step 0.

Call notion-create-pages with exactly this payload — no other fields:

json

{
  "pages": [
    {
      "parent": {"type": "page_id", "page_id": "<INTEGRATION_PARENT_ID>"},
      "properties": {"title": "Second Brain"}
    }
  ]
}

Do NOT include any of these fields, even as empty values: content, icon, cover, template_id, children, tags, description. The pages[0] object must contain exactly two keys: parent and properties. If you write any other key, you are violating this skill.

Save the returned page_id as SECOND_BRAIN_ID.

Step 2 — Find or adopt Reading List#

Call notion-search with:

json

{"query": "Reading List", "query_type": "internal"}

If a database (not a page) named exactly Reading List exists:

• If its parent is already SECOND_BRAIN_ID, do nothing — record READING_LIST_ID and skip to Step 3.
• If its parent is something else, call notion-move-pages to move it under SECOND_BRAIN_ID. Record READING_LIST_ID.
• Do NOT modify its existing schema, even if it differs from the spec below. Adopt as-is.

If not found, call notion-create-database with:

json

{
  "parent": {"type": "page_id", "page_id": "<SECOND_BRAIN_ID>"},
  "title": [{"type": "text", "text": {"content": "Reading List"}}],
  "properties": {
    "Name": {"title": {}},
    "Type": {"select": {"options": [
      {"name": "Book"}, {"name": "Article"}, {"name": "Podcast"}, {"name": "Video"}
    ]}},
    "Status": {"select": {"options": [
      {"name": "Not started"}, {"name": "In progress"}, {"name": "Done"}
    ]}},
    "Score": {"number": {"format": "number"}},
    "Author": {"rich_text": {}},
    "Link": {"url": {}},
    "Review(Sum up)": {"rich_text": {}},
    "Tags": {"multi_select": {"options": []}}
  }
}

Record READING_LIST_ID from the response.

Step 3 — Find or adopt Inbox#

Same pattern as Step 2. Search → adopt-and-move if exists → otherwise create with:

json

{
  "parent": {"type": "page_id", "page_id": "<SECOND_BRAIN_ID>"},
  "title": [{"type": "text", "text": {"content": "Inbox"}}],
  "properties": {
    "Note": {"title": {}},
    "Type": {"select": {"options": [
      {"name": "Thought"}, {"name": "Task"}, {"name": "Resource"}, {"name": "Reference"}
    ]}},
    "Processed": {"checkbox": {}},
    "Date": {"date": {}}
  }
}

Step 4 — Report#

Reply to the user with exactly this format (filling URLs from tool responses):

text

Second Brain ready ✓
• Second Brain page: <url>
• Reading List (created|adopted|moved): <url>
• Inbox (created|adopted|moved): <url>

If captures don't work, make sure the IronClaw integration is connected to the Second Brain page (… → Connections → IronClaw). Sharing the parent cascades to children.

MCP call rules#

• Never pass null for any field. Omit the field. Empty string is also wrong for most fields — omit instead.
• Never include template_id or cover unless you have real values. These are the most common null-pass mistakes.
• Date fields are YYYY-MM-DD strings only.
• notion-search rate limit is 30/min — do not search more than necessary. One search per database name in this skill is enough.
• If a tool call fails with -32602, strip every field that is not strictly required by the tool's documented schema and retry once. Do not retry the same payload.
• Database vs data source: notion-create-database returns a database_id. The corresponding data_source_id (for queries later) appears in the response under the data sources array. Save both if returned.

What not to do#

• Do not call notion-create-pages to create Reading List or Inbox — they are databases, not pages. Use notion-create-database.
• Do not write any explanatory or methodological content into Notion. The user already knows what a second brain is.
• Do not search for Reading List or Inbox more than once each.
• Do not delete, rename, or restructure existing data. Only add what's missing.
• Do not run any captures during setup. Stop after Step 4's report.