How to Build Notion Import Pipeline From Bear Note With Tag Preservation

If you are moving from Bear to Notion, you need a reliable way to transfer your notes without losing the tags you carefully organized. Bear stores tags inline within the note body using the #tag format, but Notion does not recognize this format natively. This article explains how to build a repeatable import pipeline that converts Bear’s inline tags into Notion database tags. You will learn the exact steps to export from Bear, transform the markup, and import into a structured Notion database.

What Makes Bear Tags Different From Notion Tags

Bear stores tags as inline text using the #hashtag syntax. For example, a note might contain “Meeting notes #work #project-alpha”. Notion, on the other hand, uses a separate Select or Multi-Select property within a database row. Notion does not interpret inline #tag syntax. If you paste a Bear note directly into Notion, the #tags remain as plain text and are not recognized as structured data. To preserve tags as filterable metadata, you must extract each tag from the note body and place it into a dedicated Tags column during import.

Prerequisites for Building the Import Pipeline

Before you begin, make sure you have the following tools and access:

• Bear app (macOS): You need Bear installed to export your notes in the correct format.
• Python 3.7 or later: The script in this guide uses Python with the built-in json, re, and csv modules. No third-party libraries are required.
• Notion account with database creation rights: You need the ability to create a new database or modify an existing one.
• Notion API integration (optional but recommended): If you plan to automate the import, create a Notion integration at https://www.notion.so/my-integrations and copy the Internal Integration Secret token.

Step-by-Step Pipeline: Export, Transform, and Import

Step 1: Export Notes From Bear With Tags Intact

1. Open Bear and select all notes
   Click any note in the sidebar, then press Cmd+A to select all notes. Alternatively, choose a specific tag or folder if you only want to move a subset.
2. Export as Bear Backup
   Go to File > Export Notes > Bear Backup (.bearbackup). This format preserves the full note body including inline #tags, creation dates, and modification dates. Save the file to your desktop as bear_export.bearbackup.
3. Extract the JSON from the backup
   Bear Backup files are actually ZIP archives. Rename the file extension from .bearbackup to .zip and double-click to extract. Inside you will find a folder containing a database.sqlite file and a notes.json file. Copy notes.json to a working directory.

Step 2: Transform Bear Tags Into Notion-Compatible Format

1. Create a Python script in your working directory
   Open a text editor and paste the following code. Save it as bear_to_notion.py.

   import json
   import re
   import csv
   
   with open('notes.json', 'r', encoding='utf-8') as f:
       notes = json.load(f)
   
   output = []
   for note in notes:
       title = note.get('title', '')
       body = note.get('text', '')
       # Extract all #tags (word characters only, no spaces)
       tags = re.findall(r'#([a-zA-Z0-9_-]+)', body)
       # Remove duplicates while preserving order
       seen = set()
       unique_tags = []
       for t in tags:
           if t not in seen:
               seen.add(t)
               unique_tags.append(t)
       # Remove #tag from body to avoid duplication in Notion
       cleaned_body = re.sub(r'#[a-zA-Z0-9_-]+', '', body)
       # Strip extra whitespace
       cleaned_body = re.sub(r'\s+', ' ', cleaned_body).strip()
       output.append({
           'Title': title,
           'Body': cleaned_body,
           'Tags': ', '.join(unique_tags)
       })
   
   # Write to CSV
   with open('notion_import.csv', 'w', newline='', encoding='utf-8') as f:
       writer = csv.DictWriter(f, fieldnames=['Title', 'Body', 'Tags'])
       writer.writeheader()
       writer.writerows(output)
   
   print(f'Converted {len(output)} notes. Output file: notion_import.csv')

2. Run the script
   Open Terminal, navigate to your working directory, and run python3 bear_to_notion.py. The script creates a file named notion_import.csv with three columns: Title, Body, and Tags. Each tag is separated by a comma and a space.

Step 3: Import the CSV Into a Notion Database

1. Create a new Notion database
   In Notion, click + New Page in the sidebar. Type /table and select Table – Inline. This creates a database with default properties.
2. Add a Tags column with Multi-Select type
   Click the + button in the table header. Name the column Tags and choose Multi-Select as the property type. You do not need to predefine any options; Notion will create them automatically during import.
3. Import the CSV
   Click the three-dot menu at the top right of the database, then select Import. Choose CSV and select your notion_import.csv file. In the mapping dialog, map the Title column to the Name property, Body to a Text property (create one if needed), and Tags to the Tags (Multi-Select) property. Click Import.
4. Verify tag preservation
   After import, open any note. The Tags column should display each tag as a colored pill. If a tag was not created, check that the CSV column header exactly matches the property name (case-sensitive).

If the Import Does Not Preserve Tags Correctly

Tags Appear as Plain Text in the Body Instead of the Tags Column

This happens when the CSV import mapping does not assign the Tags column to the Multi-Select property. During the import dialog, verify that the Tags column from the CSV is mapped to the Tags (Multi-Select) property in Notion. If you mapped it to a Text property, delete the imported rows, adjust the mapping, and re-import.

Tags With Special Characters Are Not Recognized

Bear allows tags containing hyphens and underscores, but Notion Multi-Select options cannot contain commas. The Python script uses re.findall(r'#([a-zA-Z0-9_-]+)') to extract tags. If your tags include characters like . or # within the tag name, modify the regex pattern to include those characters. For example, change the pattern to r'#([a-zA-Z0-9_-.]+)'.

Duplicate Tags Are Created for Different Capitalization

Notion treats Work and work as separate Multi-Select options. To avoid duplicates, modify the Python script to convert all tags to lowercase before deduplication. Replace the line if t not in seen: with if t.lower() not in seen: and store the lowercase version in the CSV.

Bear Export vs Notion Import: Key Differences

Item	Bear	Notion
Tag storage	Inline #tag within note body	Separate Multi-Select property in database
Export format	Bear Backup (.bearbackup) containing notes.json	CSV import with Title, Body, Tags columns
Tag delimiter	Space before # and space after tag	Comma-separated values in a single cell
Tag case sensitivity	Case-insensitive display	Case-sensitive options (duplicates possible)

The pipeline above converts Bear’s inline tags into a Notion database-friendly format. After the import, use Notion’s database filters and views to sort notes by tag. For future imports, consider automating the process with the Notion API: create a new page for each note using the POST /pages endpoint and set the Tags property as an array of Multi-Select option names. This approach avoids CSV mapping issues entirely.