Setting up data sources
Your agent can chat, but it has nowhere to keep anything. A data source is that place: where it writes down what it learns, and where it looks things up later. Without one, every conversation starts from nothing.
This course uses Notion as the data source. Notion is a website where you keep pages and tables. Your agent writes to it, and so can you: you can open the same pages in your browser, read what it recorded, and change anything by hand.
Your agent is called Louis, and he comes with a ready-made Notion template: sixteen databases for a neighbourhood community. You copy that template into your own workspace, let Louis in, and point him at your copy.
Before you start, finish Setting up NanoClaw. Your agent must be running and answering you on Telegram.
What you need
- A free Notion account. If you don't have one, sign up at https://www.notion.so/.
- To be the owner of your Notion workspace. When you make your own account, you are. If you are using a workspace that belongs to a company or a group, someone else may have to do the connection step for you.
The steps
Each step has its own page:
| Step | What you do | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Create the Notion page | Duplicate one ready-made page into your own workspace. | It holds the sixteen databases Louis works with. He never builds them himself. |
| Create a Notion connection | Make a connection and hand NanoClaw its token. | A connection is how a program signs in to Notion. Without it, Louis can't get in at all. |
| Connect your Notion page | Give the connection access to your copy. | A new connection can see nothing until you do. This is the step most people miss. |
| Connect your agent to Notion | Send him the link to your copy, and answer a few questions. | Several copies can look alike, so he uses the one you give him — then he starts recording. |
What Louis keeps there
You don't build any of this, and neither does Louis: the sixteen databases arrive with the template you copy. A few of them, so you know what you are looking at:
| Database | What goes in it |
|---|---|
| Members | Who is in your community, how to reach them, and what they can help with. |
| Events | Anything people gather for, and who said they are coming. |
| Items for Loan, Loans | What neighbours have offered to lend, and one row each time something is borrowed. |
| Help Requests, Lost and Found | Things people have asked for or mislaid, so they don't scroll away unanswered. |
| Estate Issues | Broken lifts, dead lights, and what was reported to whom. |
| Admin Log | What Louis did and why, so anyone can check his work. |
The full list is on the first page.
Next
Start with Create the Notion page.