I gave my YC jobs scraper write access to Notion without ever holding a Notion token

Description and use

Automated export of YC jobs scraper results to Notion without storing a token

Problem

The author’s Y Combinator jobs scraper produced a large JSON file that required manual CSV export and spreadsheet filtering to create a usable list of hiring companies.

Outcome

The scraper now writes job listings directly into Notion, removing the CSV export step and enabling instant sorting and annotation.

Workflow

• 1. Create a Notion database with the desired columns (e.g., title, salary, batch).
• 2. In the Actor’s input schema, add a "notionConnector" field of type "mcpConnector" and a "notionDataSourceId" field for the destination ID.
• 3. Authorize the Notion connector in the Apify account under Settings > API & Integrations.
• 4. In the Actor code, import the Apify SDK and the mcp library, then use the connector to call "notion-create-pages" and "notion-fetch" to write each job as a Notion page.
• 5. Run the Actor; the connector proxy authenticates with the user’s Notion token server‑side, so no token is stored in the Actor’s code.

Evidence

Apify MCP connectors use the Model Context Protocol (MCP) to let an Actor write into a user's connected apps without ever touching that app's credentials.

Source

The full implementation is in the repo: https://github.com/artem-lazarev/apify-ycombinator-jobs-scraper

Source

The proxy rejects everything else before it ever reaches Notion.

Source