What it does

notebooklm-cdp is a complete terminal interface for Google NotebookLM. Install it and you get two CLI tools:

nlm — authenticates into NotebookLM using your already-open Chrome Beta browser. One command (nlm login) extracts your active Google session via the Chrome DevTools Protocol — no OAuth popup, no login flow, no stored passwords. nlm also provides convenient index-based access to Studio notes: list, read, and export them to Markdown without knowing their UUIDs.

notebooklm — the full NotebookLM API from the terminal: create and manage notebooks, add sources (URLs, PDFs, YouTube, Google Docs, audio, video), chat with your content, generate podcasts, videos, quizzes, flashcards, slide decks, infographics, reports, and mind maps, then download the results. Complete Studio note CRUD. Multi-account profiles. Clean --json output for every command.

Who it is for

• AI agent developers who need authenticated, programmatic NotebookLM access without interactive browser sessions
• Developers using Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, or Windsurf who want to give their agent full NotebookLM access
• Automation engineers who build NotebookLM workflows — research pipelines, podcast generation, document analysis — from the terminal
• NotebookLM power users who want to manage notebooks, sources, and notes without touching the web UI

Features

• CDP auth — reads Google session cookies from your running Chrome Beta; auto-detects the active account from the open NotebookLM tab
• Notebooks — create, list, rename, delete; switch context with notebooklm use
• Sources — add URLs, PDFs, YouTube videos, Google Docs, audio, video, images; wait for processing; deep web research mode
• Chat — ask questions, get answers with source citations, continue conversations, save history as notes
• Content generation — podcasts, videos, quizzes, flashcards, slide decks (PDF/PPTX), infographics, reports, mind maps, data tables
• Studio notes — full CRUD via notebooklm note; convenient index-based access via nlm note list/read/export
• Profiles — multiple Google accounts, isolated environments for parallel agents
• --json output on every command for scripting and AI agent pipelines
• CI/CD support — inline auth via NOTEBOOKLM_AUTH_JSON environment variable, no filesystem writes needed

Requirements

• Chrome Beta with remote debugging enabled (--remote-debugging-port=9222)
• NotebookLM open in a Chrome Beta tab
• Python 3.11+

Install

uv tool install notebooklm-cdp

No uv? Run curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh, or use pip install notebooklm-cdp.

Quick start

# 1. Start Chrome Beta with remote debugging (once per session)
/Applications/Google\ Chrome\ Beta.app/Contents/MacOS/Google\ Chrome\ Beta \
  --remote-debugging-port=9222 --profile-directory=Default

# 2. Open https://notebooklm.google.com in Chrome Beta, then authenticate
nlm login

# 3. Use the full NotebookLM CLI
notebooklm list
notebooklm create "My Research"
notebooklm source add "https://example.com/paper.pdf"
notebooklm ask "What are the key findings?"
notebooklm generate audio "Focus on practical implications"

# 4. Manage Studio notes
nlm note list -n <notebook_id>
nlm note read 1 -n <notebook_id>
nlm note export -n <notebook_id> --output notes.md

Commands

Authentication

Notebooks & Sources

Chat

Content Generation

Studio Notes

How auth works

nlm login connects to Chrome Beta's CDP endpoint at http://127.0.0.1:9222, finds the open NotebookLM tab, reads the active Google session cookies, and saves them to ~/.notebooklm/profiles/default/storage_state.json. The Google account index (authuser) is detected automatically from the tab URL and embedded in the session file.

No passwords or credentials are stored — only the session cookies already present in your browser. Re-run nlm login whenever cookies expire.

License

MIT — Nolan Vale