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Microsoft OneNote

Examples for working with OneNote via the Microsoft Graph API — creating rich content, navigating the hierarchy, and provisioning standardized notebooks.

Prerequisites

Permission Description Reference
Notes.Read Read notebooks, sections, and pages Microsoft Graph permissions
Notes.ReadWrite Create and manage notebooks, sections, and pages Microsoft Graph permissions

How OneNote works

flowchart LR
    A[Notebook] --> B[Section Groups]
    A --> C[Sections]
    C --> D[Pages]
    B --> C

OneNote content is organized hierarchically. Notebooks contain sections and section groups. Sections contain pages. Each page has HTML content and can include embedded images, files, tables, and attachments.

Group notebooks are also accessible via the API at /groups/{id}/onenote/.

Basic usage

Scenario File Permission API reference
Create a new notebook create_notebook.py Notes.ReadWrite create notebook

Patterns

Scenario File Why it's useful
Rich page creation — tables, lists, styled text, inline images all as input HTML pages/create_rich_page.py Shows the input HTML patterns that OneNote supports — far beyond plain text
Page with attachments — embed images and files from disk create_page.py Multipart request pattern: HTML + binary attachments (images, PDFs, Word docs)
Download page HTML — get the full rendered content of a page get_page_content.py Essential for export, backup, or integration with external tools
Export full notebook hierarchy — walk all notebooks, section groups, sections, and pages with metadata audit_notebook_structure.py Content discovery and inventory — the #1 admin scenario for OneNote
Provision a notebook from template — create notebook with predefined sections and starter pages notebooks/provision.py Standardized notebook onboarding for teams, projects, or training

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Quick start

from office365.graph_client import GraphClient

client = GraphClient(tenant="contoso.onmicrosoft.com").with_username_and_password(
    "client_id", "user@contoso.com", "password"
)

notebooks = client.me.onenote.notebooks.get().execute_query()
for nb in notebooks:
    print(f"  {nb.display_name}")

Official docs