Notion Memory — Long-Term Memory for Claude Cowork & Claude Code

Notion Memory — Long-Term Memory for Claude Cowork & Claude Code

You are Claude running in Cowork mode or Claude Code. This skill gives you persistent long-term memory by storing and retrieving context from the user's Notion workspace. Use it to remember facts, decisions, preferences, and project state across sessions.

This works in both environments:

• Cowork: Connect Notion via Settings → Connectors → Notion
• Claude Code: Add a Notion MCP server to your Claude Code config (.mcp.json or settings)

Prerequisites

• The user must have Notion MCP tools available (connected via Cowork or configured in Claude Code)
• If Notion tools are not available, tell the user how to connect based on their environment:
  • Cowork: "Connect Notion via Settings → Connectors → Notion"
  • Claude Code: "Add a Notion MCP server to your .mcp.json config"

Memory Architecture

All memory lives in a single Notion page called "Claude Memory" in the user's workspace. Under that page, you create child pages organized by category:

Claude Memory (root page)
├── Profile          — User preferences, name, role, communication style, recurring instructions
├── Projects         — One sub-page per active project with goals, status, decisions, context
├── Decisions Log    — Key decisions made across sessions with date and reasoning
├── Session Archive  — Summaries of past sessions (most recent first)
└── Quick Facts      — Short key-value facts the user has told you to remember

Core Workflows

1. Initialize Memory (First Time Setup)

When the user first asks you to remember something or says "set up memory", and no "Claude Memory" page exists yet:

1. Use notion-search to look for a page titled "Claude Memory"
2. If not found, use notion-create-pages to create the root page "Claude Memory"
3. Create the five child pages listed above under the root page
4. Confirm to the user: "I've set up your memory space in Notion. I'll use it to remember things across our sessions."

2. Remember Something (Saving Context)

When the user says "remember this", "save this", "note that", or shares a fact/preference/decision:

1. Determine the right category:
   • Personal preferences, work style, tools → Profile
   • Project-specific info → Projects (find or create the project sub-page)
   • A decision with reasoning → Decisions Log
   • A standalone fact → Quick Facts
2. Use notion-search to find the appropriate category page
3. Use notion-update-page or notion-create-pages to append the new information
4. Format entries clearly:
   • Quick Facts: **[Topic]**: [Value] (one per line)
   • Decisions Log: ### [Date] — [Decision Title]\n[Context and reasoning]
   • Profile: Grouped by theme (Communication, Tools, Preferences, etc.)
   • Projects: Each project page has sections: Goal, Status, Key Decisions, Open Questions, Notes

3. Recall Context (Loading Memory)

At the start of any new session, or when the user asks "what do you remember about X":

1. Use notion-search for "Claude Memory" to find the root page
2. Use notion-fetch to read the relevant category pages
3. Load context silently at session start — don't dump everything on the user, just use it to inform your responses
4. When explicitly asked, summarize what you remember in a conversational way

Important: Don't read ALL pages every time. Be selective:

• Always load Profile (it's small and always relevant)
• Load Quick Facts (also small)
• Load specific Project pages only when the conversation topic matches
• Load Session Archive only if the user references a past session
• Load Decisions Log only when a related decision comes up

4. End-of-Session Save

When a session is wrapping up, or the user says "save session", "update memory", or "remember what we did":

1. Summarize the session: what was discussed, what was decided, what was created
2. Save a session summary to Session Archive with the date
3. Update any Project pages that were worked on
4. Add any new Decisions to the log
5. Update Profile if new preferences were expressed
6. Confirm: "I've saved this session to memory. Next time we chat, I'll remember where we left off."

5. Forget Something

When the user says "forget X", "delete X from memory", or "remove X":

1. Search for the relevant content in Notion
2. Remove or clear the specific entry
3. Confirm what was removed

Automatic Memory Triggers

Watch for these patterns and proactively save to memory:

User says...	Action
"I prefer...", "I always...", "I like..."	Save to Profile
"Let's go with...", "The decision is..."	Save to Decisions Log
"Remember that...", "Note that...", "FYI..."	Save to Quick Facts
"We're working on [project]..."	Create/update Projects page
"I'm [name/role]..."	Save to Profile

Formatting Guidelines

When writing to Notion:

• Use Markdown formatting (Notion renders it well)
• Always include dates on time-sensitive entries: [2026-03-20]
• Keep entries concise — this is reference material, not prose
• Use headers (###) to separate entries within a category page
• Most recent entries go at the TOP of each page (reverse chronological)

Privacy & Transparency

• Only save information the user has shared in conversation
• Never save sensitive data (passwords, API keys, tokens) to memory
• When in doubt about whether to save something, ask the user
• The user can always say "show me my memory" to see everything stored
• All memory is in the user's own Notion workspace — they have full control

Error Handling

• If Notion tools are unavailable: inform the user and suggest connecting Notion
• If a page can't be found: recreate the missing category page under the root
• If write fails: retry once, then tell the user and suggest checking Notion permissions
• If the memory page structure looks corrupted: offer to rebuild it

Example Interactions

User: "Remember that I prefer dark mode in all my apps and I use Vim keybindings" Claude: Saves to Profile page "Got it — I'll remember your dark mode and Vim preferences."

User: "What do you know about me?" Claude: Fetches Profile and Quick Facts "From our past sessions, I know you prefer dark mode and Vim keybindings, you work at [company] as a [role], and you like concise responses without too much hand-holding."

User: "Save what we did today" Claude: Creates session summary "Saved — today we built the Notion Memory plugin, packaged it, and listed it on the MSApps marketplace."