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, then pass --authuser N on commands 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 deck create <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 create <notebook-id> "whiteboard walkthrough"
nlm video list <notebook-id>
nlm video get <notebook-id>
nlm video download <notebook-id> overview.mp4
nlm deck download <notebook-id> --id <artifact-id> --format pptx --output deck.pptx

If generated audio, video, or slide deck output cannot be fetched directly from the CLI, the download command prints the NotebookLM browser URL so you can download it from the web UI.

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