notebooklm

Quick Start • Installation • Commands • Troubleshooting • Limitations

NotebookLM

A Claude Code skill for full programmatic access to Google NotebookLM — create notebooks, add sources, chat with citations, and generate podcasts, videos, quizzes and more from the terminal.

🇹🇷 Türkçe için README.tr.md

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Quick Start

git clone https://github.com/sametbrr/notebooklm ~/.claude/skills/notebooklm

> "Create a podcast about quantum computing from these three URLs"

That's it — on first use the skill installs the notebooklm-py CLI and walks you through a one-time Google login.

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Features

Full NotebookLM API	Capabilities beyond the web UI, driven from the terminal
All artifact types	Podcast, video, slide deck, infographic, report, quiz, flashcards, mind map, data table
Source ingestion	URLs, YouTube, PDFs, audio, video, images
Web research	Fast and deep research modes that import sources automatically
Chat with citations	Ask questions across sources, save answers as notes
Multi-format downloads	mp3, mp4, pdf, pptx, md, csv, json, png
One-time login	Browser-based Google auth persisted locally with restrictive permissions
Second-brain pattern	Keep a permanent notebook Claude consults before answering

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Requirements

• Claude Code (or any agentskills.io-compatible agent)
• Python 3.10+ (the skill installs 3.12 via Homebrew/apt if needed)
• A Google account with NotebookLM access
• Playwright Chromium (installed automatically during setup)

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Installation

git clone https://github.com/sametbrr/notebooklm ~/.claude/skills/notebooklm

Start a new Claude Code session and trigger the skill (e.g. /notebooklm). Setup runs automatically: it creates a venv at ~/.notebooklm-venv, installs notebooklm-py with Playwright, symlinks the CLI to ~/bin/notebooklm, and opens a browser for the one-time Google login. Auth state is stored at ~/.notebooklm/storage_state.json with 600 permissions.

Uninstall

rm -rf ~/.claude/skills/notebooklm ~/.notebooklm-venv ~/.notebooklm
rm -f ~/bin/notebooklm
# remove the PATH line added during setup, if present:
sed -i '' '/HOME\/bin/d' ~/.zshrc

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Commands

# Setup & context
notebooklm auth check                  # Verify authentication
notebooklm list                        # List notebooks
notebooklm create "Title"              # Create a notebook
notebooklm use <notebook_id>           # Set active notebook

# Sources & chat
notebooklm source add <url-or-file>    # Add a source
notebooklm source list                 # List sources with status
notebooklm ask "question"              # Chat across sources

# Generate & download
notebooklm generate audio "brief"      # Podcast (also: video, quiz, report, ...)
notebooklm artifact list               # Check generation status
notebooklm download audio ./out.mp3    # Download a finished artifact

notebooklm generate

What it does: starts generation of any artifact type (audio, video, slide-deck, infographic, report, quiz, flashcards, mind-map, data-table) from the active notebook's sources.

Example:

notebooklm generate audio "Focus on the practical implications" --length long
notebooklm artifact wait <artifact_id>
notebooklm download audio ./podcast.mp3

See SKILL.md for the full command reference, generation options, and autonomy rules.

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Troubleshooting

command not found: notebooklm — open a new terminal so PATH changes take effect, or run source ~/.zshrc.

Auth/cookie error — the Google session expired. Re-run the login flow in Step 0 of SKILL.md.

Login completes but auth check fails — no SID cookie was captured; delete ~/.notebooklm/browser_profile and ~/.notebooklm/storage_state.json, then log in again and make sure you reach notebooklm.google.com before confirming.

Generation fails or hangs — Google rate limiting. Wait 5–10 minutes and retry with --retry 3.

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Limitations

This skill drives an unofficial API — Google can change NotebookLM internals without warning, which may break commands until notebooklm-py updates.

Workaround: pin a known-good notebooklm-py version in the venv and upgrade deliberately.