Automation
N2O does nothing on its own unless you turn it on. Out of the box everything is manual: your notes and your Notion pages only change when you press Sync.
Automation is what changes that, and it runs in two directions you control separately. You can have one, both, or neither.
Two switches, and a folder has to agree
Section titled “Two switches, and a folder has to agree”This is the part that catches people, so it is worth getting straight before anything else.
A switch in Settings, Automation turns a direction on for the vault. Each synced folder then decides whether to take part, in the Synced folders window under Sync options.
Nothing runs automatically until both say yes.
So if you turn on “Get changes automatically” and nothing happens, the folder has not opted in yet. That is the usual answer, and it is not a fault.
| Vault switch | Folder switch | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Off | Off | Manual only. Press Sync. |
| On | Off | Still manual. The folder has not opted in. |
| Off | On | Still manual. The vault switch is the master. |
| On | On | Runs on its own |
Get changes from Notion
Section titled “Get changes from Notion”Notion to Obsidian. N2O brings Notion changes into the folders set to automatic pull.
It asks Notion what changed on a short cycle while you are working, and backs off when things are quiet. One check costs a single API request, which is why a low number is affordable.
What it will not do:
- It will not overwrite an edit you have not pushed yet. If a note changed on both sides, N2O routes it through a three-way merge, and where it cannot decide it leaves your version alone and marks the note as needing a decision.
- It will not find new pages. New pages are discovered when you press Sync, not by the background check. This is deliberate: discovery walks your whole workspace and is far too expensive to run every few seconds.
Check frequency
Section titled “Check frequency”How often N2O asks Notion what changed, while you are active.
A check is one request, so a low number is cheap. The default is 5 seconds. Notion reports an edit about 1.7 seconds after it is made, so a short cycle genuinely does mean you see changes sooner; this is not a number that only looks better.
When nothing has changed for a while, N2O backs off on its own and checks less often. You do not need to manage that.
Re-check everything every
Section titled “Re-check everything every”Separate from the check above, and doing a different job.
The check asks Notion what changed. This re-syncs the pages N2O already tracks, on a slower cycle, so a page that somehow drifted gets put right without you noticing. The default is 5 minutes.
It does not walk your workspace looking for new pages. Press Sync for that.
Send my edits to Notion
Section titled “Send my edits to Notion”Obsidian to Notion. When you edit a note in a folder set to automatic push, N2O sends it back to Notion shortly after you stop typing.
A note is only sent if it already exists in Notion. A brand new note you wrote in Obsidian needs somewhere to go, and N2O will not guess: give the folder a Notion destination, or send the note by hand once.
Auto-push edits your Notion pages for you. That is the point of it, and it is worth saying plainly: your changes go out a few seconds after you stop typing, without a confirmation step. Notion keeps version history on every page, so a mistake is recoverable there.
Push delay
Section titled “Push delay”How long N2O waits after your last keystroke before sending. The default is 3 seconds.
Long enough that a sentence in progress is not sent word by word, short enough that a finished thought lands quickly. Every fresh keystroke restarts the wait, so a page you are actively writing is sent once, when you stop.
Check pages against Notion
Section titled “Check pages against Notion”A background audit, off by default, and separate from syncing.
It re-reads pages N2O already tracks and compares them against Notion, so a page that has drifted is flagged rather than silently wrong. It changes nothing on its own: it only tells you.
Leave it off unless you are chasing something.
What automation costs
Section titled “What automation costs”Notion’s API allows roughly 3 requests per second, shared across everything N2O does.
| Cost | |
|---|---|
| One check for changes | 1 request |
| Checking every 5s | about 0.2 requests per second |
| A page that actually changed | a handful more, to fetch and write it |
So the background check is a small fraction of the budget, and the rest stays available for the sync it triggers. If you sync a very large workspace and want to be gentle, raise the check frequency rather than turning automation off.
If automation seems not to be running
Section titled “If automation seems not to be running”In rough order of likelihood:
- The folder has not opted in. Synced folders, the folder, Sync options. This is the common one.
- The folder is paused. A paused folder does nothing in either direction.
- The folder’s direction excludes it. A folder set to Get from Notion will not send your edits, however push is configured.
- The note is not in a synced folder. N2O only touches notes inside one.
- A new page needs a Sync. The background check does not discover pages.
The dashboard’s status line says what N2O thinks it is doing, and View activity shows what actually happened, which is usually faster than guessing.