gastownhall/beads · error

target is missing required Notion properties: %s

Error message

target is missing required Notion properties: %s

What it means

`bd notion connect` validates that the target Notion data source has the schema bd requires. notion.ValidateDataSourceSchema computes a list of missing required properties; if any are absent, connect is refused with the list so the user can fix the Notion database schema rather than failing later during sync.

Source

Thrown at cmd/bd/notion.go:682

		DatabaseID:   strings.TrimSpace(db.ID),
		DataSourceID: strings.TrimSpace(db.DataSources[0].ID),
		ViewURL:      strings.TrimSpace(db.URL),
		Message:      "Notion target initialized",
	}
	if err := saveNotionTargetConfigWithWriter(ctx, setter, deleter, result.DataSourceID, result.ViewURL); err != nil {
		return notionSetupResult{}, err
	}
	return result, nil
}

func runNotionConnectAfterValidation(ctx context.Context, client *notion.Client, url string, setter notionConfigSetter, deleter notionConfigDeleter) (notionSetupResult, error) {
	resolved, err := notion.ResolveDataSourceReference(ctx, client, url)
	if err != nil {
		return notionSetupResult{}, err
	}
	schema := notion.ValidateDataSourceSchema(resolved.DataSource)
	if len(schema.Missing) > 0 {
		return notionSetupResult{}, fmt.Errorf("target is missing required Notion properties: %s", strings.Join(schema.Missing, ", "))
	}
	result := notionSetupResult{
		Action:       "connect",
		DataSourceID: resolved.DataSourceID,
		ViewURL:      strings.TrimSpace(url),
		Message:      "Notion target connected",
	}
	if resolved.Database != nil {
		result.DatabaseID = strings.TrimSpace(resolved.Database.ID)
	}
	if err := saveNotionTargetConfigWithWriter(ctx, setter, deleter, result.DataSourceID, result.ViewURL); err != nil {
		return notionSetupResult{}, err
	}
	return result, nil
}

func notionConfigDeleteTarget() notionConfigDeleter {
	if store == nil {

View on GitHub (pinned to 71377f2769)

Solutions

1. Add the missing properties listed in the error to the Notion database (the message enumerates them).
2. Instead, run `bd notion init --parent <page-id>` to create a correctly-schemaed database automatically.
3. Re-run `bd notion connect --url <notion-url>` after the schema is fixed.
4. Confirm you connected to the bd-managed database, not a similarly named one.

// Preflight the target database schema before connecting
resolved, err := notion.ResolveDataSourceReference(ctx, client, url)
if err != nil { return err }
schema := notion.ValidateDataSourceSchema(resolved.DataSource)
if len(schema.Missing) > 0 {
    return fmt.Errorf("add missing properties to the Notion database first: %s", strings.Join(schema.Missing, ", "))
}

if _, err := runNotionConnect(cmd, args); err != nil {
    if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "missing required Notion properties") {
        // guide user to add the listed properties or use `bd notion init`
    }
    return err
}

When it happens

Trigger: Running `bd notion connect --url <notion-url>` (or tests resolving a database URL) where the resolved data source lacks one or more required properties — e.g. a plain Notion database without the status/priority/title properties bd expects.

Common situations: Connecting an arbitrary pre-existing Notion database created by hand; a database created by an older bd version with an outdated schema; duplicating a database into a workspace that dropped properties; selecting a data source of the wrong type.

Understand the failure class

Background: Schema validation failed / invalid input schema: payload rejected because its shape doesn't match the expected schema — this error's family across 28 libraries.

Related errors

• no store is open for this workspace
• not found
• no absolute native user directory is available
• ExternalDoltConfig: set either Socket OR (Host, Port), not b
• ExternalDoltConfig: must set Socket or (Host, Port)

AI-assisted analysis of gastownhall/beads@71377f2769 (2026-08-30). Data as JSON: /api/errors/d355686e12d91b27. Report an issue: GitHub.