notebooklm-zotero-import

name	notebooklm-zotero-import
description	Import local Zotero attachments into NotebookLM notebooks through notebooklm-mcp-cli (`nlm`). Use when Codex needs to find specific Zotero items by title, upload their local files to NotebookLM, default to PDF-only imports, include additional NotebookLM-supported formats when requested, auto-login to `nlm` if needed, shard notebooks at 50 files each, or avoid duplicate uploads on reruns.

NotebookLM Zotero Import

Import a Zotero collection's local attachments into NotebookLM with deterministic naming, rerun-safe behavior, and default PDF filtering.

Use the bundled script instead of reimplementing the workflow in-line.

Prerequisites

Verify these before running the import:

• nlm is installed and on PATH
• Zotero data exists locally, usually at ~/Zotero/zotero.sqlite and ~/Zotero/storage

Do not manually pre-check auth in normal use. The script always runs nlm login --check first and launches nlm login automatically when the session is missing or expired.

Workflow

1. Run the importer with uv run.

uv run ~/.codex/skills/notebooklm-zotero-import/scripts/import_zotero_to_notebooklm.py \
  --collection "Limit Order Book" \
  --notebook-base "LOB_TTT"

2. Let the script do the full workflow:

• check nlm login state and run nlm login when required
• open Zotero SQLite in read-only immutable mode
• resolve the collection by exact name
• walk descendant collections
• optionally narrow Zotero items by normalized title substring with --title-match
• resolve each attachment to a real file under Zotero storage
• keep only requested NotebookLM-supported local upload extensions; default pdf
• split uploads into notebook shards of at most 50 files
• reuse an existing same-name notebook when it is unique
• skip files already present in the target notebook based on normalized titles and filenames
• upload missing files through nlm source add --file ... --wait

The script fails fast on extensions that are not in NotebookLM's official local-upload list. As of April 21, 2026, that list includes:

• documents: pdf, docx, txt, md, csv, pptx, epub
• images: avif, bmp, gif, heic, heif, ico, jp2, jpe, jpeg, jpg, png, tif, tiff, webp
• audio and media: 3g2, 3gp, aac, aif, aifc, aiff, amr, au, avi, cda, m4a, mid, mp3, mp4, mpeg, ogg, opus, ra, ram, snd, wav, wma

Extensions outside that set, such as mlx, are rejected locally before upload.

3. Read the final summary for:

• notebooks touched
• files uploaded
• files skipped as already present
• failures, if any

Naming Rules

• Use the base name unchanged when the collection fits in one notebook.
• Use _01, _02, ... suffixes when the collection needs multiple notebooks.
• Reuse an existing notebook only when exactly one notebook has the target title.
• Fail instead of guessing when the Zotero collection name is ambiguous or multiple notebooks share the same title.

Common Commands

Import all default-PDF matches in a collection:

uv run ~/.codex/skills/notebooklm-zotero-import/scripts/import_zotero_to_notebooklm.py \
  --collection "Limit Order Book" \
  --notebook-base "LOB_TTT"

Import a named paper's PDF from a collection:

uv run ~/.codex/skills/notebooklm-zotero-import/scripts/import_zotero_to_notebooklm.py \
  --collection "Limit Order Book" \
  --title-match "LiT: limit order book transformer" \
  --notebook-base "LOB_TTT_single"

Import a named item's PDF and another supported attachment type:

uv run ~/.codex/skills/notebooklm-zotero-import/scripts/import_zotero_to_notebooklm.py \
  --collection "SGN.300" \
  --title-match "Homework_4" \
  --extension pdf \
  --extension md \
  --notebook-base "SGN300_hw4"

If you request an unsupported local format such as mlx, the script stops immediately with a clear validation error.

Use a non-default NotebookLM profile:

uv run ~/.codex/skills/notebooklm-zotero-import/scripts/import_zotero_to_notebooklm.py \
  --collection "Limit Order Book" \
  --title-match "DeepLOB" \
  --notebook-base "LOB_TTT_deeplob" \
  --profile default

Override local Zotero paths:

uv run ~/.codex/skills/notebooklm-zotero-import/scripts/import_zotero_to_notebooklm.py \
  --collection "Limit Order Book" \
  --notebook-base "LOB_TTT" \
  --zotero-db ~/Zotero/zotero.sqlite \
  --zotero-storage ~/Zotero/storage

Resources

• scripts/import_zotero_to_notebooklm.py: end-to-end importer
• references/workflow.md: behavior details, matching rules, and failure conditions