Obsidian $5k Bounty: Notion API Importer with Databases→Bases Conversion

Obsidian is offering a $5,000 bounty to build a Notion API importer that converts Notion pages and databases into Obsidian Markdown and Bases. The project must handle the new Notion Data Source object, attachments, and accurate property/view mapping. Testable, reproducible imports are required, and selection of a developer is expected within days.

Key Points

• Build a Notion API importer (using integration token) that supports the new Notion Data Source object (Sept 2025).
• Convert Notion content to Obsidian-flavored Markdown, including tables, to-dos, and accurate block rendering.
• Download and relink images/attachments to the user’s chosen attachment location in Obsidian.
• Implement Databases→Bases translation, deciding how to map views, properties, groups, summaries/rollups, and formulas into Base filters and frontmatter.
• Provide working tests and a reproducible import scenario; bounty is $5,000 with a 30-day timeframe.

Sentiment

The community is broadly supportive of open source bounties as a concept but skeptical about this specific bounty's adequacy. There is notable concern about AI-generated submissions degrading open source contribution quality. A Notion employee's engagement adds credibility and suggests genuine interest in interoperability, but also highlights how far the API is from what would be needed for a robust solution.

In Agreement

• Open source bounties are a great mechanism for getting work done, and more projects should adopt them — one developer shared paying out tens of thousands in bounties with good results
• LLMs could be useful for this kind of API conversion work, particularly for enumerating edge cases and exploring unfamiliar APIs
• A Notion employee expressed genuine interest in Notion-Obsidian interoperability, even suggesting he might add YAML frontmatter to Notion's markdown export
• The bounty increase shows the project is serious and willing to invest in quality contributions

Opposed

• The bounty is insufficient for the complexity of the Notion API, which is painful, full of limitations, and nowhere near feature parity with the UI
• AI-generated submissions were low quality — a single 1100-line file with no review — showing the task cannot be vibe-coded
• The requirement to explore both the Importer codebase and the Notion API before applying makes the time investment uncertain relative to the reward
• Offering bounties on a commercial product's plugin could be seen as exploitative of the open source community
• Notion has little incentive to maintain a robust migration API, and may even sabotage it over time