Database Brief for Notion AI

What it is for

Notion AI will build a database from a vague brief and it will not survive real data — wrong property types, no relations, and rollups that cannot be added later without rebuilding. This is the brief that avoids that.

The skill Copy

Describe the database by its QUERIES, not by its columns. A schema designed
from columns always misses the one filter you actually needed.

Give:
1. **The views you will open every day**, in order. "Everything due this week,
   grouped by client." Each view names the filter and the grouping.
2. **The one thing a row IS.** If you cannot say it in a noun phrase, the
   database is two databases.
3. **What relates to what** — and in which direction the relation is read.
4. **Which fields are never empty.** Those become the required properties and
   the ones your views filter on.

Then ask for the schema and check three things before using it:
- Every view in (1) can be built from the properties returned.
- No property exists that no view uses. Unused properties do not stay empty;
  they get filled inconsistently and then get trusted.
- Dates are date properties, not text. Text dates sort alphabetically and the
  mistake only shows up in the month where it matters.

How to install it Copy

1. Open the tool and start a new conversation, project or template.
2. Paste the text below wherever the tool keeps standing instructions
   — usually called system prompt, instructions, or persona.
3. Save it so it applies to every run rather than a single message.

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Where it came from