📘 MoT User Guidebook

MoT (Minutes of Thought) is your fast lane from idea ➜ structured Notion data.

Use MoT to capture notes by text or voice, apply template-driven workflows, and automate summaries and backups without having to wrestle with Notion APIs directly.

Table of Contents

1. What MoT Does
2. Core Concepts
3. Quick Start (Web)
4. Quick Start (iPhone via Expo Go)
5. Daily Workflows

• Allowlist + Schema Setup
• Templates / Shortcuts
• Capture (Text + Voice)
• Rules
• Summaries
• Backups

1. Troubleshooting
2. Best Practices
3. Useful Links

What MoT Does

MoT is a productivity companion for Notion users who want both speed and structure.

You can use MoT to:

• Capture quickly with freeform text or voice.
• Commit safely into specific Notion databases you’ve explicitly allowed.
• Use repeatable templates for deterministic, form-style entries.
• Automate summaries daily/weekly with rules per table.
• Create backups using full snapshots or incremental sync.
• Work across web and mobile while keeping data scoped by your userId.

Core Concepts

Understanding these terms will make the rest of the app feel straightforward:

✅ Important: If things look “empty” (tables, templates, rules), the #1 cause is usually a userId mismatch.

Quick Start (Web)

Use this path when running against production web.

1. Open https://motapps.com.
2. Sign in with Google.
3. In the right-side auth section:

• Click Connect Notion.
• Enter the App Access Token if prompted.

1. Open 1) Allowlist and run:
2. Refresh Workspace Tables
3. Select the databases you want MoT to manage
4. Save allowlist
5. Refresh schema cache
6. Open Shortcuts:

• Optional: Install Logging Core
• Run a template in Form mode to verify end-to-end commit.

Success checklist

• You can see your selected databases in allowlist.
• Schema refresh completes without Notion 404s.
• A template commit creates a row in the expected Notion table.

Quick Start (iPhone via Expo Go)

Use this when testing mobile without App Store/TestFlight distribution.

1. Start backend (repo root):

• npm run start

1. Start Expo server:

• cd mobile
• npm install
• npm run start:tunnel

1. Open Expo Go on iPhone and connect.
2. In MoT mobile Settings configure:

• Base URL
• Local API: http://<your-mac-ip>:8080 (phone and laptop must share network)
• Production API: https://api.motapps.com
• userId: recommended to use your email (example: name@example.com)
• App Access Token: required if backend enforces it
• Connect Notion

💡 Tip: If mobile can connect but tables are empty, ensure the same userId was used when completing Notion OAuth.

Daily Workflows

1) Allowlist + Schema Setup

MoT writes only to databases in your allowlist.

Recommended sequence

1. Connect Notion
2. Refresh workspace tables
3. Select desired databases
4. Save allowlist
5. Refresh schema cache

Common gotcha

• Notion 404 usually means the target page/database was not shared with your Notion integration.

2) Templates / Shortcuts

Templates are ideal for repeatable workflows (journaling, exercise logs, daily standups, etc.).

What templates give you

• Deterministic field-to-column mapping
• Pre-filled defaults
• Required/validation-style constraints
• Reusable structure for both form and voice capture

Actions you’ll use most

• Form: fill fields manually and commit.
• Voice: dictate input and let AI propose + commit using template constraints.
• Copy URL: share/deeplink template launch (great for iOS Shortcuts).

3) Capture (Text + Voice)

Capture mode is best for quick, less-structured input.

Typical flow

1. Enter text or record voice
2. Click Propose
3. Review proposal + follow-up questions
4. Click Commit
5. Optionally edit the created Notion page/properties

Quality tips

• Mention dates/times explicitly when needed.
• Include clear nouns (project names, people, categories).
• Keep one idea per capture when possible for cleaner routing.

4) Rules

Rules help AI behave consistently.

Rule layers

• Global capture/summary rules: broad defaults.
• Per-table capture rules: date column preference, time handling, prompt hints, directives.
• Per-table summary rules: summary-specific date basis and guidance.

Good strategy

• Start global and minimal.
• Add per-table rules only when one table needs specific behavior.

5) Summaries

Summaries can be triggered manually or by schedule.

Configurable options

• Target summary table
• Date basis (last_edited_time or custom date columns)
• Daily/weekly windows
• Prompt hints per table

Suggested usage

• Daily summaries for operational logs.
• Weekly summaries for project rollups.
• Separate summary tables for personal vs work domains.

6) Backups

Backups protect you from accidental data loss and enable auditing.

Modes

• Full snapshot: export all rows for selected databases.
• Incremental sync: pull changes since last cursor and append.

When using file storage locally, outputs are stored under data/.

Troubleshooting

Notion OAuth callback issues

“Missing code”

Usually caused by opening callback URL directly, blocking the popup, or not finishing Notion authorize flow.

“Invalid/expired state”

OAuth state is one-time use. Retry from Connect Notion.

“invalid redirect_uri”

Redirect URI must match exactly (scheme + host + path + trailing slash rules).

Production callback URI:

• https://api.motapps.com/auth/notion/callback

Tables not showing in allowlist

• Confirm same userId is used end-to-end.
• Refresh workspace tables.
• Save allowlist again.
• Refresh schema cache.
• Restart app if stale state is suspected.

Commits fail unexpectedly

• Verify database is still in allowlist.
• Verify schema cache was refreshed after Notion schema changes.
• Check whether App Access Token is required/missing.

Best Practices

• Keep userId stable across web/mobile.
• Restrict allowlist to only tables you truly use.
• Use templates for high-value repetitive workflows.
• Add rules incrementally and review outcomes.
• Run incremental backups regularly.

Useful Links

• Production web: https://motapps.com
• Production API: https://api.motapps.com
• Notion integrations dashboard: https://www.notion.so/profile/integrations

For deeper implementation details, see the developer doc: Software Overview.