notebooklm-mcp-2026

Secure MCP server for querying Google NotebookLM notebooks. Designed for use with Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code Copilot, and any MCP-compatible AI assistant.

Fork enhancements — This fork improves on julianoczkowski/notebooklm-mcp-2026 with multi-browser auth (including Helium), automatic session refresh, and a single login command that verifies your account and configures MCP clients.

Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/xdI3uEA5rew?si=FkD0sdCZSFFWpjhy

What it does

notebooklm-mcp-2026 gives AI assistants direct access to your Google NotebookLM notebooks. It runs as a local subprocess (stdio transport) — no HTTP server needed. Your AI assistant can list your notebooks, read source content, and ask the NotebookLM AI questions about your sources.

Related MCP server: notebooklm-mcp

Quick Start

One command to log in, verify your account, and configure Cursor / Claude Code / VS Code. Works on macOS, Linux, and Windows.

Step 1: Install

From this fork (recommended):

git clone https://github.com/Faxtom/notebooklm-mcp-2026.git
cd notebooklm-mcp-2026
pip install -e .

Or with uv (upstream package):

curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh
uv tool install notebooklm-mcp-2026

Windows (PowerShell):

cd notebooklm-mcp-2026
python -m pip install -e .

Step 2: Log in (auth + verify + MCP setup)

notebooklm-mcp-2026 login --browser helium --method browser

This single command:

1. Tries to import cookies from your browser (Helium, Chrome, Edge, Brave, Firefox, …)

2. If no valid session is found, opens the browser so you can log in to notebooklm.google.com

3. Verifies your account against the real NotebookLM API

4. Auto-configures all detected MCP clients (Cursor, Claude Code, VS Code, …)

Using Helium? That's the recommended browser in this fork. Your normal Helium window can stay open — the interactive login uses an isolated profile.

Don't want auto-setup? Add --skip-setup to only authenticate.

Step 3: Use it

Restart your MCP client and ask your AI assistant:

"List my NotebookLM notebooks"

That's it! You do not need to run setup separately after login.

Requirements

• A Chromium-based browser — Chrome, Edge, Brave, Helium, Chromium, Opera, or Vivaldi (for interactive login)

• Or Firefox / LibreWolf / Safari — cookie import only (no interactive login window)

• Python 3.11+

Don't have a browser?

• Helium (recommended): helium.computer · GitHub

• Chrome: google.com/chrome

• On Linux, chromium or the Helium .deb / AppImage also work

Don't have Python?

If you used uv to install (recommended), you don't need to install Python separately — uv handles it for you.

If you prefer to install Python manually:

Alternative Install Methods

Other install options:

# pipx (if you already have it)
pipx install notebooklm-mcp-2026

# pip (inside a virtual environment)
python -m venv .venv && source .venv/bin/activate
pip install notebooklm-mcp-2026

# From source
git clone https://github.com/Faxtom/notebooklm-mcp-2026.git
cd notebooklm-mcp-2026
pip install -e .

Authentication

notebooklm-mcp-2026 uses Google session cookies. No passwords are stored — only session cookies, a CSRF token, and a session ID.

Supported browsers

Login methods

Examples

# Recommended — Helium: import or open browser, then verify + configure MCP
notebooklm-mcp-2026 login --browser helium --method browser

# Auto-detect any installed browser
notebooklm-mcp-2026 login

# Interactive login with a specific browser
notebooklm-mcp-2026 login --browser edge --method cdp

# Import cookies from a JSON export
notebooklm-mcp-2026 login --method import --import-file cookies.json

# Login only, skip MCP configuration
notebooklm-mcp-2026 login --skip-setup

Session refresh

When cookies expire, the MCP server tries to refresh them automatically:

1. Re-import from your installed browsers (Helium first)

2. Re-read the isolated browser profile from a previous CDP login

3. Only then ask you to run login again

check_auth validates credentials with a real API call (not just a homepage check).

Helium paths (Windows)

Set a default browser with:

export NOTEBOOKLM_BROWSER=helium   # macOS / Linux
$env:NOTEBOOKLM_BROWSER = "helium" # Windows PowerShell

Where credentials are stored

Override with: NOTEBOOKLM_MCP_DATA_DIR=/custom/path

CLI Commands

Login flags

MCP Client Configuration

The setup command auto-configures your MCP client. You should not need to edit these files manually, but if you do:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "notebooklm-mcp-2026": {
      "command": "notebooklm-mcp-2026",
      "args": ["serve"]
    }
  }
}

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "notebooklm-mcp-2026": {
      "command": "notebooklm-mcp-2026",
      "args": ["serve"]
    }
  }
}

{
  "servers": {
    "notebooklm-mcp-2026": {
      "command": "notebooklm-mcp-2026",
      "args": ["serve"]
    }
  }
}

Claude Desktop does not inherit your terminal's PATH, so you must use the full path to the executable.

First, find your executable path:

# macOS / Linux
which notebooklm-mcp-2026

# Windows (PowerShell)
where notebooklm-mcp-2026

Then edit your config file:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

• Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

macOS example:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "notebooklm-mcp-2026": {
      "command": "/Users/YOUR_USER/.local/bin/notebooklm-mcp-2026",
      "args": ["serve"]
    }
  }
}

Windows example:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "notebooklm-mcp-2026": {
      "command": "C:\\Users\\YOUR_USER\\.local\\bin\\notebooklm-mcp-2026.exe",
      "args": ["serve"]
    }
  }
}

Replace YOUR_USER with your actual username, or paste the exact path from the which/where command above.

Available Tools (9)

Typical workflow

1. list_notebooks          → find the notebook ID you want
2. list_sources            → see what sources are in it
3. query_notebook          → ask questions about the sources
4. get_source_content      → read raw source text if needed

Example output

When your AI assistant calls list_notebooks, it gets back structured data like this:

{
  "status": "success",
  "count": 2,
  "notebooks": [
    {
      "id": "abc123-def456",
      "title": "Research Notes",
      "source_count": 3,
      "is_owned": true,
      "modified_at": "2026-01-15T10:30:00+00:00"
    },
    {
      "id": "ghi789-jkl012",
      "title": "Project Planning",
      "source_count": 5,
      "is_owned": true,
      "modified_at": "2026-01-14T08:00:00+00:00"
    }
  ]
}

And query_notebook returns:

{
  "status": "success",
  "answer": "Based on the sources, the main topics covered are...",
  "conversation_id": "conv-uuid-123",
  "turn_number": 1,
  "is_follow_up": false
}

Follow-up conversations

query_notebook returns a conversation_id. Pass it back to ask follow-up questions in the same conversation context:

# First question
result = query_notebook(notebook_id="abc", query="What is the main topic?")
# result.conversation_id = "uuid-123"

# Follow-up
result = query_notebook(notebook_id="abc", query="Tell me more about that", conversation_id="uuid-123")

Troubleshooting

"Not authenticated" or "Cookies expired"

notebooklm-mcp-2026 login --browser helium --method browser

Browser import fails on Windows

Close the browser completely before import (the cookie database is locked while the browser runs). If import fails, --method browser will open the browser for interactive login automatically.

"Browser not found" error

Install Helium or Chrome, or specify the path:

notebooklm-mcp-2026 login --browser helium --method cdp
notebooklm-mcp-2026 login --chrome-path "C:\Users\YOU\AppData\Local\imput\Helium\Application\chrome.exe"

Run notebooklm-mcp-2026 doctor to see which browsers are detected.

Empty notebook list

Make sure you're logged into the correct Google account that has NotebookLM notebooks.

"Build label" errors

Google occasionally rotates their build label. Set the updated label:

NOTEBOOKLM_BL="boq_labs-tailwind-frontend_YYYYMMDD.XX_p0" notebooklm-mcp-2026 serve

Rate limit errors

NotebookLM free tier allows ~50 queries per day. Wait until the next day or upgrade.

Something else?

Run the diagnostic tool:

notebooklm-mcp-2026 doctor

Environment Variables

Security

• No passwords stored — only Google session cookies

• File permissions — credentials saved with 0o600 (owner read/write only)

• Directory permissions — data directory created with 0o700 (owner only)

• No eval/exec — no dynamic code execution anywhere

• No shell=True — browsers launched with explicit argument lists

• Cookie filtering — only essential Google auth cookies are persisted

• Browser cleanup — browser process always terminated in finally blocks

• Input validation — all tool parameters validated before use

• Timeouts — all HTTP requests have explicit timeouts

• CSRF protection — tokens passed in request body, auto-refreshed on expiry

Development

# Install dev dependencies
pip install -e ".[dev]"

# Run tests
pytest

# Lint
ruff check src/ tests/

Testing with MCP Inspector

The MCP Inspector lets you interactively test the server's tools in a web UI:

npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector notebooklm-mcp-2026 serve

This opens a browser where you can call each of the 9 tools with custom parameters and inspect responses. You must run notebooklm-mcp-2026 login first.

Getting Help

• Questions? Open an Issue

• Found a bug? Open an Issue

• Want to contribute? See CONTRIBUTING.md

• Security issue? See SECURITY.md for responsible disclosure

License

MIT