converting-notion-to-docusaurus-blog

Converting Notion Exports to Docusaurus Blog Posts

Overview

Automates conversion of Notion markdown exports into properly formatted Docusaurus blog posts for docs.getdbt.com. Handles frontmatter generation, image processing, content cleanup, and file organization.

When to Use

• User provides a path to a Notion markdown export
• User mentions converting Notion content to a blog post
• User has exported content from Notion for the dbt developer blog

Workflow

1. Read Notion Export

Parse the markdown file and locate the accompanying image folder (same name as the .md file, without the hash suffix).

2. Extract Metadata

From the Notion export, extract:

• Title: The H1 heading
• Owner: Maps to author lookup
• Remove the metadata block (Status, Owner, Created time) from output

3. Look Up Author

Search website/blog/authors.yml for a matching name from the Owner field.

If not found, prompt user:

Author "[Name]" not found in authors.yml.

How would you like to proceed?
1. Enter details now (name, title, photo URL, LinkedIn)
2. Scaffold empty entry to fill in manually later

Option 2 creates:

firstname_lastname:
  name: Full Name
  title: ""  # TODO
  image_url: /img/blog/authors/firstname-lastname.png  # TODO
  socials:
    linkedin: ""  # TODO
  page: true

4. Prompt for Confirmations

• Date: Default to today + 2 days (YYYY-MM-DD)
• Slug: Suggest SEO-optimized version (short, keywords only, drop filler words)
• Description: Find a compelling sentence from within the article that captures the key value or insight - not just the opening line
• Tag: Select the most appropriate tag based on content (see Tag Selection below)
• End of content: Confirm where the publishable content ends (remove trailing internal notes)

Slug guidelines: Keep 2-4 words, include primary keywords, drop "introducing", "a", "the", "how to".

• "Introducing dbt agent skills" → dbt-agent-skills
• "Getting Started with git Branching Strategies" → git-branching-strategies-dbt

Tag selection: Check website/blog/categories.yml for available tags and their descriptions. Select the most appropriate tag based on the post content. Fall back to analytics craft only if no other tag fits.

5. Process Images

For each image in the Notion export folder:

1. Analyze the image to generate a semantic filename (e.g., skills-mcp-diagram.png not 74cb2aed-fe53-481b-89d0-eefd0054e0c2.png)
2. Generate alt text for accessibility
3. Copy to website/static/img/blog/YYYY-MM-DD-slug/

6. Copy Original File

Copy the Notion markdown file to website/blog/YYYY-MM-DD-slug.md first. This establishes the baseline for git diffs.

7. Apply Transformations as Edits

Apply transformation rules (see below) as individual edits to the copied file. This makes changes visible in git diff, allowing review of exactly what was modified.

8. Spellcheck Pass

Run a spellcheck on the content and fix any typos or spelling errors. Be careful to preserve technical terms, product names (dbt, MetricFlow, BigQuery), and intentional stylistic choices.

9. Report Results

Summarize: files created, images processed, spelling corrections made, any TODO items (e.g., incomplete author entry).

Transformation Rules

Frontmatter

Generate YAML frontmatter:

---
title: "Title from H1"
description: "A compelling sentence from the article that captures the key value or insight"
slug: seo-optimized-slug

authors: [author_slug]

tags: [appropriate-tag]
hide_table_of_contents: false

date: YYYY-MM-DD
is_featured: true
---

Images

Content Cleanup

Truncate Marker

Insert <!-- truncate --> after the introduction (1-3 paragraphs, ~150-300 words) and before the first ## heading.

Quick Reference

Notion Export:
  my-post abc123.md
  my-post abc123/
    image.png
    image 1.png

Step 1 - Copy original:
  website/blog/YYYY-MM-DD-slug.md  (raw Notion content)

Step 2 - Apply edits (diffable):
  website/blog/YYYY-MM-DD-slug.md  (transformed)
  website/static/img/blog/YYYY-MM-DD-slug/
    semantic-name.png
    another-semantic-name.png