Notion connector tools remain 401 after reconnect in Codex desktop
Open 💬 4 comments Opened May 28, 2026 by Nomia
Summary
The Codex desktop app can discover Notion connector tools after reinstall/reconnect, but the tools still fail with 401 Reauthentication required. The UI does not make it clear whether Notion is installed, authenticated, enabled as an MCP server, or only available as a plugin connector.
Environment
- Codex desktop app on macOS
- Date observed: 2026-05-28
- Notion plugin/connector was uninstalled, reinstalled, and reconnected by the user
- Screenshot state:
notionappears under "From plugins", while the main MCP server list only showsnode_replandplaywright
Expected behavior
After reconnecting / reauthorizing Notion, the current Codex session should be able to use the Notion tools to fetch and update pages.
Actual behavior
Tool discovery exposes Notion tools under:
mcp__codex_apps__notion
But fetching a Notion page still fails:
401: "Server returned 401: 'Reauthentication required'"
The older mcp__notion__ namespace is no longer usable in this session:
unsupported call: mcp__notion__notion_fetch
Steps tried
- Uninstalled the Notion MCP/plugin from Codex settings.
- Reinstalled / reconnected Notion.
- Retried tool discovery.
- Retried
mcp__codex_apps__notion._fetchagainst a Notion page URL. - Still received
401 Reauthentication required.
Impact
- Codex can discover Notion tools but cannot actually read or write Notion pages.
- Reinstalling/reconnecting Notion does not appear to refresh the connector auth state available to the current Codex runtime.
- The UI does not clearly distinguish:
- installed plugin
- connected OAuth account
- active MCP server
- connector requiring reauthentication
Requested improvements
- Refresh Notion connector authentication after reconnect/reinstall so the current Codex session can use the tools.
- Surface explicit status in the MCP/plugin UI: connected, needs auth, enabled as MCP, installed as plugin only, etc.
- Provide a way to force-refresh connector auth for the current session without guessing whether a Codex restart is required.
- If a connector is discovered but unusable due to auth, show that status in tool discovery or the tool error with a user-actionable remediation.
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