NotebookLM CLI

Use nlm to list notebooks, select a target, and ask questions via generate-chat or chat.

Workflow

1. Verify CLI

   • command -v nlm (if missing, ask how they want to install)

2. Verify auth

   • Check ~/.nlm/env or env vars NLM_AUTH_TOKEN, NLM_COOKIES
   • If missing, run:
     • nlm auth --all --notebooks
     • If profiles are locked: NLM_USE_ORIGINAL_PROFILE=1 nlm auth --all --notebooks --debug
   • If auth still fails, fail fast and ask the user to complete browser login manually

3. Select notebook

   • nlm list (shows recent)
   • Ask user to pick an ID if not provided

4. Interact

   • Headless single question: nlm generate-chat <notebook-id> "<prompt>"
   • Interactive session: nlm chat <notebook-id>
   • Source-based transformations: ask for source IDs, then use summarize, explain, outline, faq, briefing-doc, timeline, toc

5. Guardrails

   • Always confirm before destructive operations: rm, rm-source, rm-note, delete-artifact, audio-rm
   • Confirm before privacy-impacting actions: share (public) and share-private

Quick commands

nlm list
nlm generate-chat <notebook-id> "Question about my knowledge base"
nlm chat <notebook-id>

Notes

• If user says "talk to my knowledge base", ask which notebook ID to use
• No implicit state: do not assume a last-used notebook