notebooklm

Original：🇺🇸 English

Translated

NotebookLM integration patterns for external RAG, research synthesis, studio content generation (audio, cinematic video, slides, infographics, mind maps), and knowledge management. Use when creating notebooks, adding sources, generating audio/video, or querying NotebookLM via MCP.

2installs

Sourceyonatangross/orchestkit

Added on2026-03-25

NPX Install

npx skill4agent add yonatangross/orchestkit notebooklm

SKILL.md Content

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NotebookLM

NotebookLM = external RAG engine that offloads reading from your context window. Uses the

notebooklm-mcp-cli

MCP server (PyPI, v0.5.0+) to create notebooks, manage sources, generate content, and query with grounded AI responses. Supports batch operations across notebooks, pipelines, and multilingual content generation.

Disclaimer: Uses internal undocumented Google APIs via browser authentication. Sessions last ~20 minutes. API may change without notice.

What's New (March 2026)

Cinematic Video Overviews (Mar 4) — fully animated narrated videos powered by Gemini 3 + Veo 3. Google AI Ultra only, 20/day limit, English only.
4 Audio Formats — Brief, Critique, Debate, Deep Dive (was single podcast style)
8x Source Capacity — 8x more source material per conversation, 6x extended memory
Per-Slide Editing —
```
studio_revise
```
edits individual slides without regenerating the full deck
3-Panel UI — Sources / Chat / Studio layout on notebooklm.google.com
Research timeout (v0.5.0) —
```
research_import
```
now configurable via
```
--timeout
```
/
```
timeout
```
param (default 300s, was 120s)
Deep research errors (v0.5.1) —
```
RPCError
```
class with error codes, auto-retry on transient API failures

Prerequisites

Install:

uv tool install notebooklm-mcp-cli

(or

pip install notebooklm-mcp-cli

)

Authenticate:
```
nlm login
```
(opens browser, session ~20 min)
Configure MCP:
```
nlm setup add claude-code
```
(auto-configures
```
.mcp.json
```
) or
```
nlm setup add all
```
for multi-tool setup
Verify:
```
nlm login --check
```
to confirm active session
Upgrade:
```
uv tool upgrade notebooklm-mcp-cli
```
— restart MCP server after upgrade

Decision Tree — Which Rule to Read

What are you trying to do?
│
├── Create / manage notebooks
│   ├── List / get / rename ──────► notebook_list, notebook_get, notebook_rename
│   ├── Create new notebook ──────► notebook_create
│   └── Delete notebook ──────────► notebook_delete (irreversible!)
│
├── Add sources to a notebook
│   ├── URL / YouTube ────────────► source_add(type=url)
│   ├── Plain text ───────────────► source_add(type=text)
│   ├── Local file ───────────────► source_add(type=file)
│   ├── Google Drive ─────────────► source_add(type=drive)
│   ├── Rename a source ──────────► source_rename
│   └── Manage sources ──────────► rules/setup-quickstart.md
│
├── Query a notebook (AI chat)
│   ├── Ask questions ────────────► notebook_query
│   └── Configure chat style ────► chat_configure
│
├── Generate studio content
│   ├── 10 artifact types ───────► rules/workflow-studio-content.md
│   ├── Revise slides ───────────► studio_revise (creates new deck)
│   └── Export to Docs/Sheets ──► export_artifact
│
├── Research & discovery
│   └── Web/Drive research ──────► rules/workflow-research-discovery.md
│
├── Notes (capture insights)
│   └── Create/list/update/delete ► note (unified tool)
│
├── Sharing & collaboration
│   └── Public links / invites / batch ► rules/workflow-sharing-collaboration.md
│
├── Batch & cross-notebook
│   ├── Query across notebooks ────► cross_notebook_query
│   ├── Bulk operations ───────────► batch (query, add-source, create, studio)
│   └── Multi-step pipelines ──────► rules/workflow-batch-pipelines.md
│
├── Organization
│   └── Tag notebooks ─────────────► tags
│
└── Workflow patterns
    ├── Second brain ─────────────► rules/workflow-second-brain.md
    ├── Research offload ─────────► rules/workflow-research-offload.md
    └── Knowledge base ──────────► rules/workflow-knowledge-base.md

Quick Reference

Category	Rule	Impact	Key Pattern
Setup	`setup-quickstart.md`	HIGH	Auth, MCP config, source management, session refresh
Workflows	`workflow-second-brain.md`	HIGH	Decision docs, project hub, agent interop
Workflows	`workflow-research-offload.md`	HIGH	Synthesis, onboarding, token savings
Workflows	`workflow-knowledge-base.md`	HIGH	Debugging KB, security handbook, team knowledge
Workflows	`workflow-studio-content.md`	HIGH	10 artifact types (audio, cinematic video, slides, infographics, mind maps...)
Research	`workflow-research-discovery.md`	HIGH	Web/Drive research async flow
Collaboration	`workflow-sharing-collaboration.md`	MEDIUM	Public links, collaborator invites, batch sharing
Batch	`workflow-batch-pipelines.md`	HIGH	Cross-notebook queries, batch ops, pipelines
Release	`workflow-versioned-notebooks.md`	HIGH	Per-release notebooks with changelog + diffs

Total: 9 rules across 5 categories

MCP Tools by API Group

Group	Tools	Count
Notebooks	notebook_list, notebook_create, notebook_get, notebook_describe, notebook_rename, notebook_delete	6
Sources	source_add, source_rename, source_list_drive, source_sync_drive, source_delete, source_describe, source_get_content	7
Querying	notebook_query, chat_configure	2
Studio	studio_create, studio_status, studio_list_types, studio_revise, studio_delete	5
Research	research_start, research_status, research_import	3
Sharing	notebook_share_status, notebook_share_public, notebook_share_invite, notebook_share_batch	4
Notes	note (unified: list/create/update/delete)	1 (4 actions)
Downloads	download_artifact	1
Export	export_artifact (Google Docs/Sheets)	1
Batch	batch (multi-notebook ops), cross_notebook_query	2
Pipelines	pipelines (ingest-and-podcast, research-and-report, multi-format)	1
Tags	tags (organize and smart-select notebooks)	1
Auth	save_auth_tokens, refresh_auth, server_info	3

Total: 37 tools across 13 groups (v0.5.0+)

Key Decisions

Decision	Recommendation
New notebook vs existing	One notebook per project/topic; add sources to existing
Source type	URL for web, text for inline, file for local docs, drive for Google Docs
Large sources	Split >50K chars into multiple sources for better retrieval
Auth expired?	`nlm login --check` ; sessions last ~20 min, re-auth with `nlm login`
Studio content	Use studio_create, poll with studio_status (generation takes 2-5 min)
Cinematic video	`studio_create(artifact_type="cinematic_video")` — requires Ultra, English only, 20/day
Audio format	Choose brief/critique/debate/deep_dive via `audio_format` param
Research discovery	research_start for web/Drive discovery, then research_import (timeout=300s default)
Deep research	`research_start(mode="deep")` for multi-source synthesis (v0.5.1+, auto-retries)
Release notebooks	One notebook per minor version; upload CHANGELOG + key skill diffs as sources
Query vs search	notebook_query for AI-grounded answers; source_get_content for raw text
Notes vs sources	Notes for your insights/annotations; sources for external documents
Infographic style	11 visual styles via `infographic_style` param on studio_create
Slide revision	Use `studio_revise` to edit individual slides (creates a new deck)
Export artifacts	`export_artifact` sends reports → Google Docs, data tables → Sheets
Language	`language` param on studio_create accepts BCP-47 codes (e.g., `he` for Hebrew, `en` , `es` , `ja` )
Batch operations	Use `batch` for multi-notebook ops; `cross_notebook_query` for aggregated answers
Pipelines	`ingest-and-podcast` / `research-and-report` / `multi-format` for multi-step workflows

Example

bash

# 1. Create a notebook for your project
notebook_create(title="Auth Refactor Research")

# 2. Add sources (docs, articles, existing code analysis)
source_add(notebook_id="...", type="url", url="https://oauth.net/2.1/")
source_add(notebook_id="...", type="text", content="Our current auth uses...")
source_add(notebook_id="...", type="file", path="/docs/auth-design.md")

# 3. Query with grounded AI responses
notebook_query(notebook_id="...", query="What are the key differences between OAuth 2.0 and 2.1?")

# 4. Generate a deep dive audio overview (supports language param)
studio_create(notebook_id="...", artifact_type="audio", audio_format="deep_dive", language="he", confirm=True)
studio_status(notebook_id="...")  # Poll until complete

# 5. Generate a cinematic video overview (Ultra only, English)
studio_create(notebook_id="...", artifact_type="cinematic_video", confirm=True)
studio_status(notebook_id="...")  # Poll — takes 3-8 minutes

# 6. Capture insights as notes
note(notebook_id="...", action="create", content="Key takeaway: PKCE is mandatory in 2.1")

Common Mistakes

Forgetting auth expiry — Sessions last ~20 min. Always check with
```
nlm login --check
```
before long workflows. Re-auth with
```
nlm login
```
.
One giant notebook — Split by project/topic. One notebook with 50 sources degrades retrieval quality.
Huge single sources — Split documents >50K characters into logical sections for better chunking and retrieval.
Not polling studio_status — Studio content generation takes 2-5 minutes. Poll
```
studio_status
```
instead of assuming instant results.
Ignoring source types — Use
```
type=url
```
for web pages (auto-extracts),
```
type=file
```
for local files. Using
```
type=text
```
for a URL gives you the URL string, not the page content.
Deleting notebooks without checking —
```
notebook_delete
```
is irreversible. List contents with
```
source_list_drive
```
and
```
note(action=list)
```
first.
Skipping research_import —
```
research_start
```
discovers content but does not add it. Use
```
research_import
```
to actually add findings as sources.
Raw queries on empty notebooks —
```
notebook_query
```
returns poor results with no sources. Add sources before querying.
Ignoring language param —
```
studio_create
```
supports BCP-47
```
language
```
codes (e.g.,
```
he
```
,
```
ar
```
,
```
ja
```
). Defaults to English if omitted.
Batch without purpose —
```
batch
```
and
```
cross_notebook_query
```
are powerful but add latency. Use for multi-project synthesis, not single-notebook tasks.

Related Skills

```
ork:mcp-patterns
```
— MCP server building, security, and composition patterns
```
ork:web-research-workflow
```
— Web research strategies and source evaluation
```
ork:memory
```
— Memory fabric for cross-session knowledge persistence
```
ork:security-patterns
```
— Input sanitization and layered security