Connect NotebookLM to ChatGPT
Use MCP to access your notebooks from the ChatGPT desktop app.
This article was written in German by Christian Rothe and translated into English with the help of AI. Read the German original.
NotebookLM brings your sources together; ChatGPT can use them for the next task. An MCP server lets the desktop app access notebooks without pasting every text into another chat.
My workshop uses the community notebooklm-mcp-cli project. After installation, Google sign-in and the Codex connection, select a notebook and ask concrete questions about its sources. The commands below follow the project’s setup.
How to proceed
- Create a NotebookLM notebook containing the sources for your topic.
- Run the setup commands in a terminal and sign into your own Google account with nlm login.
- Use nlm setup add codex to connect the ChatGPT desktop app, then restart the app.
- In a new chat, list the available notebooks first and then query the selected notebook with the prompt.
This workflow uses a community MCP server and the ChatGPT desktop app with Codex. A regular chat at chatgpt.com does not automatically use this local connection.
Setup commands
uv tool install notebooklm-mcp-cli nlm login nlm setup add codex
Prompt
Use the connected NotebookLM MCP tools. List my notebooks first and ask which one to use. In the selected notebook, investigate: [topic or research question] 1. Where do the sources agree? 2. Where do methods or results conflict? 3. Which open questions do the authors identify? Give the source and exact passage for each point. Open supporting passages where the tools support it. Mark missing evidence instead of inventing it. Do not edit sources or create new notebooks.