nlm

Command-line interface and MCP server for Google NotebookLM.

Quickstart

go install github.com/tmc/nlm/cmd/nlm@latest
nlm auth
nlm notebook list
nlm chat <notebook-id> "summarize the key findings"

Authentication

nlm auth finds a logged-in browser profile (Chrome, Brave, Edge) and caches credentials under ~/.nlm. For CI and scripting, export credentials directly:

nlm auth --print-env
nlm --cookies 'SID=...; HSID=...; SSID=...' notebook list
nlm --auth <auth-token> notebook list

For multi-account setups, use nlm auth --authuser N or export NLM_AUTHUSER=N.

Usage

nlm <command> [arguments]

Canonical help uses grouped noun-first commands for notebooks, sources, notes, artifacts, and chat administration:

nlm notebook list
nlm source add <notebook-id> https://example.com
nlm note create <notebook-id> "Title" "Body"
nlm artifact list <notebook-id>
nlm chat list <notebook-id>

Legacy top-level aliases still work for existing scripts, but new usage should prefer the grouped commands above.

Notebook

nlm notebook list
nlm notebook list --limit 25
nlm notebook list --all
nlm notebook create "My Notebook"
nlm notebook delete <notebook-id>
nlm notebook featured
nlm notebook rename <notebook-id> "New Title"
nlm notebook emoji <notebook-id> "📚"
nlm notebook description <notebook-id> "Creator notes"
nlm notebook cover <notebook-id> <preset-id>
nlm notebook cover-image <notebook-id> ./cover.png
nlm notebook unrecent <notebook-id>

notebook list shows the first 10 notebooks on a TTY by default. Use --limit to choose a different cap, or --all to suppress the TTY cap entirely.

Source

nlm source list <notebook-id>
nlm source add <notebook-id> https://example.com/article
nlm source add <notebook-id> ./document.pdf
nlm source add <notebook-id> "Meeting notes from March 5"
printf '%s\n' https://example.com/a ./notes.pdf | nlm source add <notebook-id> -
nlm source sync <notebook-id> .
nlm source pack .
nlm source read <source-id> [notebook-id]
nlm source delete <notebook-id> <source-id>

When you pass - to source add, stdin is treated as one source reference per line. For multi-line text, pass a file path or use notes instead.

Note

nlm note list <notebook-id>
nlm note read <notebook-id> <note-id>
nlm note create <notebook-id> "Title" "Content"
nlm note create <notebook-id> "Title" < content.md
nlm note update <notebook-id> <note-id> "Content" "Title"
nlm note delete <notebook-id> <note-id>

Note bodies are sent verbatim as Markdown — pipe a .md file through stdin and you get the rendering you expect, no HTML conversion needed.

Label

nlm label list <notebook-id>
nlm label generate <notebook-id>
nlm label create <notebook-id> "Name" [emoji]
nlm label rename <notebook-id> <label-id> "New Name"
nlm label emoji <notebook-id> <label-id> "🏷️"
nlm label delete <notebook-id> <label-id> [<label-id>...]
nlm label attach <notebook-id> <label-id> <source-id>
nlm label unlabeled <notebook-id>
nlm label relabel-all <notebook-id>

label list and label generate cover the autolabel suite; label create and friends are the manual surface for hand-curated labels.

Create, Artifact, Audio, and Video

nlm create-audio <notebook-id> "deep dive on topic X"
nlm create-video <notebook-id> "whiteboard walkthrough"
nlm create-slides <notebook-id> "presentation summary"
nlm report-suggestions <notebook-id>
nlm create-report <notebook-id> <report-type> "focused brief"

nlm artifact list <notebook-id>
nlm artifact get <artifact-id>
nlm artifact update <artifact-id> "New Title"
nlm artifact delete <artifact-id>

nlm audio list <notebook-id>
nlm audio get <notebook-id>
nlm audio share <notebook-id>
nlm audio delete <notebook-id>
nlm --direct-rpc audio download <notebook-id> overview.mp3
nlm video list <notebook-id>
nlm video get <notebook-id>
nlm --direct-rpc video download <notebook-id> overview.mp4

Chat

nlm chat <notebook-id>
nlm chat <notebook-id> "What is this about?"
nlm chat <notebook-id> --source-ids s1,s2 "..."
nlm chat <notebook-id> --source-ids - "..." < ids.txt
nlm chat list
nlm chat list <notebook-id>
nlm chat history <notebook-id> <conversation-id>
nlm chat show <notebook-id> <conversation-id>
nlm chat delete <notebook-id>
nlm chat config <notebook-id> <setting> [value]
nlm chat instructions set <notebook-id> "Always cite sources and be concise"
nlm chat instructions get <notebook-id>
nlm generate-chat <notebook-id> "summarize"

Under --citations=json, the chat stream emits JSON-lines events on stdout. Add --thinking to include reasoning traces: {"phase":"thinking","text":...}, {"phase":"answer","text":...}, {"phase":"citation","index":...,"source_id":...,"confidence":...}, {"phase":"followup","text":...}, {"phase":"done"}.

Content Transformation

nlm summarize <notebook-id>     nlm critique <notebook-id>
nlm rephrase <notebook-id>      nlm brainstorm <notebook-id>
nlm expand <notebook-id>        nlm verify <notebook-id>
nlm explain <notebook-id>       nlm outline <notebook-id>
nlm study-guide <notebook-id>   nlm faq <notebook-id>
nlm timeline <notebook-id>      nlm toc <notebook-id>
nlm briefing-doc <notebook-id>  nlm mindmap <notebook-id> <source-id>

Pass source IDs positionally, or use --source-ids / --source-match to scope the command without listing them on the command line.

Research and Sharing

nlm research <notebook-id> "research query"
nlm research <notebook-id> --mode=fast "query"
nlm research <notebook-id> --md "query" > report.md
nlm research <notebook-id> "query" | jq -r \
    'select(.type=="source_discovered") | .url' \
    | nlm source add <notebook-id> -

nlm share <notebook-id>
nlm share-private <notebook-id>
nlm share-details <share-id>

The default research event stream uses type values such as progress, source_discovered, report_chunk, and complete. --md switches to raw markdown output.

Other

nlm auth
nlm refresh
nlm feedback "Great tool!"
nlm mcp

MCP Server

nlm includes a built-in Model Context Protocol server that exposes NotebookLM operations as tools for AI assistants.

nlm mcp

Configure it in your MCP client:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "nlm": {
      "command": "nlm",
      "args": ["mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Available MCP tools include list_notebooks, list_sources, list_notes, list_artifacts, create_notebook, create_note, create_audio_overview, create_video_overview, create_slide_deck, generate_chat, read_note, set_instructions, get_instructions, start_deep_research, and poll_deep_research.

Composing with the shell

nlm is designed to be pipeline-friendly:

• List commands auto-detect TTY. At a terminal they align columns; when piped they emit literal tabs so cut, awk, and paste work cleanly.
• --json on list commands emits one JSON object per record on stdout.
• - means "read from stdin, one value per line" for commands such as source add, source delete, and chat --source-ids -.
• Destructive commands refuse to prompt when stdin is not a TTY. Pass -y to bypass prompts in scripts.

Worked examples live in docs/EXAMPLES.md.

Exit codes

Shell scripts can branch on nlm's exit status. Each non-zero code also prints nlm: exit-class=<name> (exit N) to stderr:

Code	Class	Meaning	Typical handling
0	success	Ran to completion	continue
1	generic	Unclassified error	inspect stderr
2	bad-args	Bad invocation (missing arg, unknown flag)	fix the command
3	auth	Auth required / auth expired	nlm auth and retry
4	not-found	Notebook / source / artifact does not exist	stop; target is wrong
5	precondition	Permanent precondition (source-cap, quota, deleted)	stop; retry will not help
6	transient	Rate-limit, 5xx, network	retry with backoff
7	busy	Resource still generating / polling incomplete	sleep and poll

Selected Flags

Run nlm <command> -h for per-command usage. Common flags:

--version            Print version and exit
--auth string        Auth token
--cookies string     Browser cookies (SID, HSID, SSID)
--profile string     Chrome profile to use
--debug              Enable debug output
--json               Emit output as JSON / JSON-lines
--direct-rpc         Use direct RPC calls for audio/video operations
--experimental       Enable experimental commands
--mime string        Override MIME type for source uploads
--name string        Override source or artifact title
--replace string     Replace an existing source when adding
--source-ids string  Restrict chat/report/transform commands to source IDs
--source-match regex Restrict chat/report/transform commands by source title or ID
--citations mode     Citation rendering: off|block|stream|tail|overlay|json
--thinking           Show reasoning traces while streaming chat output
--prompt-file path   Read a one-shot chat prompt from a file
--mode string        Research mode: fast or deep
--md                 Emit raw markdown instead of JSON-lines (research)
-y, --yes            Skip confirmation prompts

Package Structure

cmd/nlm/                    CLI entry point
internal/
  notebooklm/api/           High-level API client
  notebooklm/rpc/           Low-level RPC client
  batchexecute/             Google batchexecute protocol
  beprotojson/              Proto <-> batchexecute JSON marshaling
  nlmmcp/                   MCP server implementation
  auth/                     Browser cookie extraction
gen/
  method/                   RPC argument encoders
  service/                  Generated service clients
  notebooklm/v1alpha1/      Protocol buffer definitions

License

MIT