From Notion

How to export a Notion workspace to Markdown and open it in OpenKnowledge, what carries over, and where the two differ.

This guide will cover exporting your Notion workspace to markdown files so that you can access them from OpenKnowledge. There are several key differences between OpenKnowledge and Notion that make this export incomplete and those will be covered here.

Export your workspace from Notion

In Notion, click on your workspace in the top left and go to Settings.
Under General, scroll down to Export.
Set Export format to Markdown & CSV and leave all the default settings.
Download and unzip the export folder and move it to your desired location.

Open the export in OpenKnowledge

macOS Desktop app

Open OpenKnowledge, choose Open folder on disk, select the unzipped export folder, and proceed through the Setup screen with defaults selected.

Linux, Windows, Intel Mac

Install the ok CLI, cd into the unzipped folder, and run ok init && ok start --open.

What exports cleanly

Notion content	In OpenKnowledge
Headings, paragraphs, bold / italic, quotes, and dividers	Render natively and are preserved in the exported markdown.
Bulleted, numbered, and to-do lists	Render natively, including nesting and `- [ ]` checkboxes.
Code blocks	Render with syntax highlighting.
Simple (inline) tables	Convert to Markdown pipe tables and render as tables.
Images and file attachments	Downloaded into the export folder next to each page and referenced with relative `![alt](path)` links; images render inline. See Assets and embeds.

Where the two differ

A number of Notion features don't survive the Markdown & CSV export, or land as plain text.

Notion feature	What happens
Databases (tables, boards, calendars, galleries, timelines)	Each exports as a stub page, a `<name>_all.csv` of the whole table, and a folder holding one markdown file per row. The per-row pages are first-class docs, but there is no support for viewing complete CSV tables.
Relations, rollups, formulas	Not represented in the Markdown & CSV export.
Database row properties	Exported as plain `Key: Value` lines under the page title, not YAML frontmatter.
Callouts	Exported as raw `<aside>` HTML. The content is preserved, but it isn't converted to OpenKnowledge's native callout (`> [!note]`), so it doesn't pick up callout styling.
Toggles and toggle headings	Nested content is preserved, but the collapsible toggle wrapper is lost.
Synced blocks	Written out as ordinary content wherever they appear; the link between copies is gone.
Web bookmarks and embeds (Figma, video, PDF, etc.)	Converted to plain links. The rich preview card or inline embed is gone. Uploaded files download alongside the page.
Links between pages	Notion percent-encodes every link target (every exported filename ends in `<id>`). Fixable in bulk after import by decoding `%20` and trimming the trailing `<id>`.
Pasted or inline images	Some images export inline as base64 `data:` URIs instead of downloaded files. They don't render and add very large lines to the file. Downloaded `![alt](file.png)` images are unaffected.
Page icons and cover images	Not exported.
Comments, page history, and backlinks	Not included in the export.

Clean up after import (optional)

Most of the rough edges above are mechanical to fix, and the AI agent connected to your project can do it in bulk through OpenKnowledge's MCP tools. Paste any of these prompts to your agent:

Decode internal links. "In every markdown file, decode %20 and other percent-escapes in relative .md link targets so the links resolve." Do this first so the next step can rewrite links.
Drop the Notion ID from filenames. "Rename every page to remove the trailing <32-character hex id> from its filename, and verify the links that point to it."
Promote row properties to frontmatter. "On pages exported from databases, turn the Key: Value lines under the title into a YAML frontmatter block." They then show up in the Properties panel.
Convert callouts. "Replace each <aside>…</aside> block with an OpenKnowledge callout (> [!note])."
Remove inline base64 images. "Find [](data:image/...;base64,...) blobs and remove them — they don't render and bloat the file."