RampStack skills in Notion.

Visual demonstration

What this looks like in practice.

# Notion MCP, called via the agent runtime
mcp.notion.create_database({
  parent: { page_id: "<workspace-page>" },
  title: [{ text: { content: "Briefs" } }],
  properties: {
    "Name": { title: {} },
    "Status": { status: {
      options: ["Draft", "Active", "Archived"]
    }},
    "Tone": { select: {
      options: ["Professional", "Conversational",
                "Playful", "Provocative"]
    }},
    "Aesthetic": { select: {
      options: ["Editorial Restrained",
                "Polished Standard",
                "Controlled Maximalist",
                "Expressive Maximalist"]
    }},
    "Direction tokens": { relation: {
      database_id: "<direction-tokens-db-id>",
      type: "dual_property"
    }}
  }
})

# Repeat per axis Select; add Rollup for artifact count

CLI alternative

Notion has no first-party CLI.

Templates

Copy these into the workspace.

Database: Briefs

Property                Type           Configuration
--------                ----           -------------
Name                    Title          required
Status                  Status         Draft / Active / Archived
Owner                   Person         single
Created                 Created time   auto
Last edited             Last edited    auto

Tone                    Select         Professional / Conversational
                                       / Playful / Provocative
Aesthetic               Select         Editorial Restrained /
                                       Polished Standard /
                                       Controlled Maximalist /
                                       Expressive Maximalist
Relationship            Select         Authority / Peer /
                                       Companion / Coach
Sensory                 Select         Functional / Considered /
                                       Resonant

Pages                   Relation       -> Pages database
Components              Relation       -> Components database
Articles                Relation       -> Articles database
Releases                Relation       -> Releases database

Pages count             Rollup         Pages, count all
Components count        Rollup         Components, count all
Articles count          Rollup         Articles, count all
Releases count          Rollup         Releases, count all

Coverage                Formula        prop("Pages count") +
                                       prop("Components count") +
                                       prop("Articles count") +
                                       prop("Releases count")

# Synthesis

[One paragraph in present tense describing what
this combination produces in practice.]

# Rationale per axis

- Tone: chose [position] because [one sentence]
- Aesthetic: chose [position] because [one sentence]
- Relationship: chose [position] because [one sentence]
- Sensory: chose [position] because [one sentence]

# Won't do (toggle)

> Click to expand. The rejection list is the most
> useful part of the brief.

  - [specific phrasing, structure, or visual move
    this brief excludes]
  - [next item]
  - [next item]

# Inspiration

(Use bookmark blocks for each reference.)

[bookmark URL]
[bookmark URL]
[bookmark URL]

# Open questions

- [anything still unresolved that downstream
  artifacts will need answered]

Database: Pages (or Components, Articles, Releases)

Property                Type           Configuration
--------                ----           -------------
Name                    Title          required
Status                  Status         Drafting / In review /
                                       Published / Archived
Owner                   Person         single
URL                     URL            optional, for
                                       deployed artifacts

Brief                   Relation       -> Briefs database
                                       (required during refinement)

Tone (from brief)       Rollup         from Brief, Tone Select,
                                       show original
Aesthetic (from brief)  Rollup         from Brief, Aesthetic
Relationship (from brief) Rollup       from Brief, Relationship
Sensory (from brief)    Rollup         from Brief, Sensory

Direction status        Status         Aligned / Drift / Needs review
Last reviewed           Date           manual, set during direction
                                       review

View 1: Briefs by Status (board)
  Source: Briefs database
  Layout: Board
  Group by: Status
  Visible properties: Name, Tone, Aesthetic, Coverage

View 2: Active briefs and their coverage (table)
  Source: Briefs database
  Filter: Status = Active
  Sort: Coverage descending
  Visible properties: Name, Tone, Aesthetic,
                      Relationship, Sensory,
                      Coverage, Owner

View 3: All artifacts under one brief
  Source: Pages database (and the others, separately)
  Filter: Brief = [select the brief from the dropdown]
  Group by: Status

View 4: Drift surface
  Source: Pages database (etc.)
  Filter: Direction status = Drift
  Sort: Last reviewed ascending
  Visible properties: Name, Owner, Last reviewed

# Voice guide

This guide lives downstream of the brief. The four
voice attributes below derive from the Tone position
selected on the active brief. To change them, change
the brief.

## Voice attributes

We are [direct], not blunt.
We are [warm], not saccharine.
We are [confident], not arrogant.

(These three lines come from the brief synthesis.
Update them when the brief changes.)

## Examples

### Headlines we use (linked database)

Source: Articles database
Filter: Tone (from brief) = [the active brief's tone]
        AND Status = Published
Group by: Brief

### Empty-state copy we use (linked database)

Source: Components database
Filter: Tone (from brief) = [the active brief's tone]
        AND Name contains "empty"
Group by: Brief

Composition

Which skills feed the Notion integration.

The brief comes from creative-direction. Voice docs derived from a brief consume brand-voice. Visual standards consume brand-identity. Each downstream skill produces an artifact that lands in one of the artifact databases with a Relation back to the brief, so the workspace stays traceable.

Frequently asked questions.

Why a database instead of a single doc?

A doc cannot be queried, filtered, or rolled up. A database can. The whole point of putting a brief in Notion is to make every downstream artifact discoverable from the brief and the brief discoverable from every artifact. Single-document briefs lose that traceability the moment a second brief exists. The database scales; the doc does not.

What property types are doing the work?

Select properties for the four axis positions, since Select is queryable and forces a single value. Relation properties connecting downstream artifact databases (Pages, Components, Articles, Releases) back to the brief. Rollup properties aggregating from related rows so a brief page shows counts of artifacts that reference it. Status property for direction-status review. Title, URL, Date, and Person are the standard support cast.

How does the team avoid the Notion-as-CMS habit overriding the spec patterns?

Two ways. First, briefs go in their own database, not a generic Pages database, so the schema is tight and the views are purpose-built. Second, downstream artifact databases use a Relation back to the Briefs database as a required property; without that relation the artifact does not show up in any brief view. The schema enforces traceability that ad-hoc page hierarchy cannot.

What is the most common Notion-specific failure of this integration?

The brief lives as a stand-alone page instead of a database row. Without the database structure, the Select properties are not available, no Relation can point at it, and no Rollup can aggregate against it. The brief becomes another doc in the workspace, queryable only by full-text search. The first migration step every team needs is converting the brief from page-with-text to row-in-database.