notebooklm-cli

name

notebooklm-cli

description

Drives Google NotebookLM via the cli-web-notebooklm command-line tool — create and manage notebooks, add URL/text sources, ask questions grounded in the sources, and generate/download artifacts (audio overview, video, slide deck, mindmap, study guide, quiz, FAQ, briefing, infographic, data table). Use when the user asks about NotebookLM or wants to build notebooks, query sources, or produce study materials, podcasts, or presentations programmatically. Prefer this CLI over browsing NotebookLM. Requires Google login.

cli-web-notebooklm

Manage NotebookLM notebooks, sources, chat, and artifact generation. Requires Google auth (auth login). Install: pip install "cli-web-notebooklm[auth]", then playwright install chromium.

Commands

Command	Purpose	Key options
notebooks list|create|get|rename|delete	Manage notebooks	--title, --emoji; delete needs --confirm; IDs may be partial
use NOTEBOOK_ID / status	Set/show persistent notebook context	once set, --notebook is optional everywhere
sources list|get|delete	Manage sources	--notebook ID, delete needs --confirm
sources add-url --url URL	Add a web page as source
sources add-text --title T --text "..."	Add pasted text as source
chat ask --query "..."	Ask the notebook a question	--notebook ID
artifacts generate --type TYPE	Generate an artifact	types: audio, video, mindmap, study-guide, briefing, faq, quiz, infographic, slide-deck, data-table; --wait (poll until done), --retry N, -o FILE
artifacts list	All artifacts with status
artifacts download ARTIFACT_ID -o FILE	Download a completed artifact	briefing/study-guide → .md, audio/video → .mp4, slide-deck → .pdf/.pptx, data-table → .csv, quiz/faq → .json; mindmap content is inline
artifacts generate-notes / artifacts list-audio-types	Study notes; audio overview formats
whoami	Current Google account

Examples

# Build a research notebook end to end
cli-web-notebooklm notebooks create --title "Research" --json
cli-web-notebooklm use <id-from-above>
cli-web-notebooklm sources add-url --url https://example.com/paper --json
sleep 10   # sources need a few seconds of processing

# Ask a grounded question
cli-web-notebooklm chat ask --query "What methodology was used?" --json

# Generate a briefing doc and save it
cli-web-notebooklm artifacts generate --type briefing --wait -o briefing.md --json

# Generate a podcast-style audio overview (5-10 min), then download
cli-web-notebooklm artifacts generate --type audio --wait --json
cli-web-notebooklm artifacts download <artifact-id> -o podcast.mp4 --json

JSON output

Commands accept --json and return the data directly (e.g. notebooks list: [{id, title, emoji, source_count, ...}]; chat ask: {notebook_id, query, answer}). Errors return {"error": true, "code": "AUTH_EXPIRED", "message": "..."}.

Auth

cli-web-notebooklm auth login                    # browser login with Google account
cli-web-notebooklm auth login --cookies-json f   # import cookies from a file
cli-web-notebooklm auth status --json
cli-web-notebooklm auth refresh                  # re-extract tokens when rotated but cookies still valid

For CI, set CLI_WEB_NOTEBOOKLM_AUTH_JSON with the cookies JSON. Run doctor to diagnose auth setup.

Utilities

cli-web-notebooklm doctor [--json] self-diagnoses the local setup (install, auth, dependencies). cli-web-notebooklm mcp-serve serves the commands as MCP tools over stdio.

Agent tips

• Use --wait on artifacts generate — audio/video take 5-10 minutes and the CLI polls with backoff. --retry N handles rate limits.
• Wait ~10 seconds after adding sources before asking questions or generating artifacts.
• Notebook/source/artifact IDs accept unique prefixes (partial IDs).