NLM Expert Research MCP — Frontier
Server Configuration
Describes the environment variables required to run the server.
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| NLM_ADAPTER | No | Selects the adapter: 'local' (default) or 'browser'. Browser mode fails closed until real transport is configured. | local |
Instructions
Guidance the server publishes about itself, which clients place ahead of the tool catalog so the model reads it before choosing anything.
This server publishes no instructions, or was last inspected before Glama recorded them.
Capabilities
Features and capabilities supported by this server
Protocol revision2025-11-25
| Capability | Details |
|---|---|
| tools | {
"listChanged": true
} |
Tools
Functions exposed to the LLM to take actions
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| researchA | Research a question against exactly one NotebookLM notebook. Returns a compact source-locked evidence capsule with claims, citations, conflicts, gaps and quality status. Use this for substantive notebook questions. |
| list_notebooksA | List the authenticated account’s live NotebookLM notebooks. Use this when the user asks what expert notebooks are available; the result includes an explicit count and cached results are marked catalog_stale when live discovery is unavailable. |
| list_sourcesA | List authoritative remote source IDs and titles for one NotebookLM notebook using the RPC-only metadata path. Use before discussing corpus scope or freshness. |
| healthA | Check Frontier, persistent NotebookLM authentication, and upstream transport readiness without exposing credentials. |
| notebook_resolveA | Resolve a notebook by title, alias, ID or URL. Cache misses trigger a live refresh; cache is never authoritative. |
| notebook_refreshB | Force refresh of live notebooks and sources, detecting created, renamed, deleted and newly added items. |
| get_evidenceA | Retrieve one evidence item by evidence ID from a previous research session. |
| compare_notebooksC | Explicitly compare two notebooks while preserving provenance by notebook. Never invoked implicitly. |
| setup_authA | Open a visible Chrome window for secure Google login. Set force=true when cookies look valid locally but Google redirects to sign-in. |
| doctorB | Run local diagnostics for runtime, adapter, registry and stdio-safe MCP operation. |
Prompts
Interactive templates invoked by user choice
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
No prompts | |
Resources
Contextual data attached and managed by the client
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
No resources | |
TDQS
Scored across 10 tools
Tools have mostly distinct purposes: setup_auth is for login, health for status, doctor for local diagnostics, research for single-notebook queries, compare_notebooks for two-notebook comparisons, and so on. Some potential confusion exists between list_notebooks and notebook_resolve (listing vs resolving one) and doctor vs health, but descriptions clarify the boundaries well.
Naming follows a mostly verb_noun pattern (list_notebooks, get_evidence, compare_notebooks) but deviates with single-word names (doctor, health, research) and reversed object_verb forms (notebook_resolve, notebook_refresh). This mixed convention is readable but not fully consistent.
10 tools is well-scoped for an expert research MCP, covering authentication, diagnostics, health, notebook discovery, source listing, research, evidence retrieval, and comparison. Each tool earns its place without redundancy or bloat.
The surface covers the full research lifecycle: setup auth, check health, list/resolve/refresh notebooks, list sources, run research, retrieve evidence, and compare notebooks. Minor gaps include lack of a tool to browse all evidence from a session or a single tool to search across multiple notebooks, but these are not core to the stated purpose.