Help / Notion and Dropbox
Notion and Dropbox
Both Notion and Dropbox can be connected as an input (a place indecs watches for new files), an output (where processed results are sent, alongside your email) or both at once. Connect them from the Integrations card on the Settings page.
Dropbox
Watches a folder for new files and, optionally, writes processed results back to Dropbox.
What happens to the original
- Leave (default) - the file stays where it is.
- Move - the original moves to
_processed/inside your input folder. - Delete - the original is permanently deleted from Dropbox.
A rejected file (failed content moderation) is always moved to _rejected/, regardless of the setting above - rejected files are never deleted automatically.
Connect
Connecting redirects you to Dropbox to authorize indecs, then back to your dashboard. The app requests read and write access to files and their metadata - it needs write access to move processed originals and to upload output files.
Where files go in and out
/Apps/indecs/ (your input folder, configurable)
statement.pdf <- drop files here to process them
_processed/ <- moved here if "after processing" = move
_rejected/ <- moved here if content moderation rejects it
_output/
2025-04/
Invoice from Acme.pdf <- output: original, if output is enabled
Invoice from Acme.summary.htmlThe default input folder is /Apps/indecs; you can change it in Settings. Output, when enabled, is written to <folder>/_output/<YYYY-MM>/ as the original file plus an HTML summary sidecar. Syncing skips the _processed, _rejected and _output subfolders, so output and moved originals are never re-processed as new input.
What metadata is written
Every output file is tagged in Dropbox with: the issuer, the document type, the year, a month-year tag (e.g. "Mar_2025"), any AI-generated tags and a fixed indecs tag - capped at 20 tags total, Dropbox's limit.
Title, dates, issuer, model and job ID are also written as native Dropbox file metadata (a "property group"), which shows up in Dropbox's own file info panel. This requires a metadata template that has to exist in your Dropbox app configuration first - if it doesn't, metadata tagging is silently skipped and the file still uploads normally. Finder-style tags above always work regardless of the template.
Sync timing
Dropbox is checked for new files every 5 minutes, plus immediately whenever Dropbox sends a webhook notification about a change.
Troubleshooting
- Nothing is syncing. Check the Integrations card in Settings - a connection issue shows an "issue" tag with the error message next to Dropbox. If sync has failed 5 times in a row, indecs pauses that account's Dropbox sync for 15 minutes before trying again automatically (a circuit breaker, to avoid hammering a broken connection) - if the pause has just started, wait and check back.
- Files reprocessed twice. Each file is matched against its Dropbox path; if a file was moved or renamed and re-appears at a new path, it looks like a new file and is processed again. This is expected for a genuine move; if it's happening to files that haven't moved, that's worth reporting.
- The metadata template. If native Dropbox metadata never appears (Finder-style tags still do), the property template hasn't been created for this app yet - this is an account-level setup step, not something you control per-file.
Notion
Watches a database or a page for new content and, optionally, writes processed results into a Notion database.
Connect
Connecting redirects you to Notion to authorize indecs, then back to your dashboard. Notion requires you to also explicitly share the specific database or page with the integration from inside Notion - the OAuth grant alone is not enough. If a database "can't be found" after connecting, this is almost always why: open the database, use the "..." menu, go to Connections and add indecs.
Where files go in and out
Input can be either a watched database or a watched page - configured from the Integrations card in Settings, where you pick an existing database/page or have indecs create a new database for you. Output can go to the same database as input, or to a different one you choose separately.
What happens to the original
Configurable per account, same shape as Dropbox:
- Leave (default) - the page is untouched.
- Mark - the page's Status property is set to "Processed".
- Archive - the page is moved to Notion's trash.
A rejected page has its Status property set to "Rejected" and is never archived automatically.
What metadata is written
Output pages get a title, date, issuer, document type, tags, the summary text and a file attachment - written into whichever of those properties exist on your database, matched by type. If your database doesn't have a matching property (say, no "Tags" multi-select column), that field is simply skipped rather than causing an error.
Sync timing
Same as Dropbox: a 5-minute cron plus immediate sync on webhook notification.
Troubleshooting
- Nothing is syncing. Check the Integrations card in Settings for an "issue" tag next to Notion with the underlying error.
- "Could not find database". The database exists but hasn't been shared with the indecs integration inside Notion - see Connect, above.
- A property didn't get filled in. Notion rejects values that don't match a property's type (for example, text sent to a date column) - indecs skips properties it can't match rather than failing the whole page, so a missing field usually means the column type doesn't match what indecs expected.
Common to both
- Same file processed twice. Both services check whether a file's specific reference has already produced a job before queuing it again - this catches the ordinary case (a webhook and the 5-minute cron both notice the same new file). It does not catch a file that's been moved, copied or genuinely re-uploaded, which looks new.
- Where to see the last error. The Settings page shows the most recent sync error for each connected service inline, next to its connection status - you don't need to dig through logs.