Keep the intent canvas in Notion and run the living product workflow in Zentrik. Choose a page, review exactly what will change, and bring its intent into an initiative alongside relevant customer evidence. If your team collects requests in Notion, in a form’s table or as one page per request, bring them in as ideas, with who asked and what they wrote.
Use Notion when an initiative begins as an intent canvas, one-pager, or early PRD. Zentrik reads the page you choose, proposes an initiative name and overview, and shows potentially related insights and ideas already known in the workspace.
The source relationship is intentionally one-way: Notion remains the authored document; Zentrik becomes the live system for evidence, decisions, studies, and delivery.
Access & permissions
What Zentrik requests when you connect. You can review or revoke access from the provider's account or admin console anytime.
- Selected pages only : Notion’s authorization picker controls which pages and databases the connected Zentrik workspace can read.
- Explicit changes : Every proposed initiative field is shown before applying; unchecked fields stay unchanged.
- Read-only upstream : Zentrik does not edit the source page or create a two-way sync loop.
Connect Notion
From Settings → Integrations → Notion, connect the workspace that contains the brief. In Notion’s page picker, share only the pages Zentrik should be able to read. You can also connect from an initiative’s Overview when choosing a source for the first time.
How it works
The workflow always separates reading from changing. Selecting a page creates a preview; applying selected fields creates the source relationship.
Start an initiative
- Open the initiative Overview and choose Start from Notion.
- Search pages shared with Zentrik or paste a page link.
- Review the proposed name and overview field by field.
- Select only the fields you want and apply them.
Related insights and ideas are suggestions for review. They are never attached automatically.
Bring in requests
Requests can sit in a table, often filled by a Notion form, or on pages, one page per request. Both come in the same way.
- In Notion, open the database or the page that holds the requests and add Zentrik under ••• → Connections.
- In Discovery, choose Bring in evidence → Ideas you already track → Notion, then pick the database or page, or paste its link. A page that only holds the request table opens that table.
- Zentrik says in one sentence how it read what you chose; change any part of it in place. For a table, the sentence names the columns for the title, the details, who asked, the status and the priority, and the details can include what is written on each row’s page. For a page, it says whether each page inside it is a request or the page itself is one, and who asked: the person who wrote the page, unless you choose nobody.
- Check the lines below it. Statuses Zentrik cannot place keep your default status. A request that reads like an idea you already have joins that idea as the requester’s request instead of becoming a second copy; one that only might match stays new unless you choose otherwise.
- Choose Import. The import runs in the background and reports in the corner when it finishes.
Each idea links back to its Notion page and shows who asked. Import again whenever new requests arrive: requests already in Zentrik are skipped, pages edited in Notion are refreshed, and a status keeps following Notion until someone changes it in Zentrik.
Review updates
When the source page has a newer edit timestamp, the initiative shows Updated in Notion. Open the source review to compare the latest page with the current initiative. If the page changes again while you are reviewing, Zentrik stops the apply and asks you to review the newest version.
Data boundaries
- OAuth tokens stay on the server and are never returned to the browser.
- Content is read only from pages and databases shared with the connected Notion integration.
- Zentrik stores the applied source snapshot and freshness metadata with the initiative.
- Removing the source stops update checks but preserves initiative content already applied.
- Zentrik does not write back to Notion.
Troubleshooting
Most connection problems clear up after a fresh authorization or an admin allows the app. If you have tried that and still cannot connect, contact us and we will help.
A request database or page is missing
In Notion, open it and add Zentrik under ••• → Connections. Pages inside a shared page are shared too. Only what is shared with the connection appears in the list.
A page is missing
Reconnect Notion and include that page in Notion’s page picker, or confirm the page is shared with the connected integration.
The page changed during review
Open the source review again. Zentrik intentionally blocks stale previews so a newer Notion edit is never overwritten accidentally.
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