Notebooks Commands¶

Manage NotebookLM notebooks from the command line.

Available Commands¶

Command	Description
`create`	Create a new notebook
`recent`	List recently viewed notebooks
`delete`	Delete one or more notebooks

create¶

Create a new notebook with a title.

Usage¶

nblm notebooks create --title <TITLE>

Options¶

Option	Description	Required
`--title <TITLE>`	Notebook title	Yes

Examples¶

Basic usage:

nblm notebooks create --title "My Research Notebook"

JSON output:

nblm --json notebooks create --title "Project Documentation"

Output:

{
  "title": "Project Documentation",
  "notebookId": "abc123def456",
  "name": "projects/123456789012/locations/global/notebooks/abc123def456",
  "createTime": "2025-10-25T10:30:00Z",
  "updateTime": "2025-10-25T10:30:00Z"
}

Notes¶

The notebook is created in your Google Cloud project
The notebookId is needed for subsequent operations (adding sources, etc.)
Newly created notebooks are empty and have no sources

recent¶

List recently viewed notebooks.

Usage¶

nblm notebooks recent [--page-size <SIZE>]

Options¶

Option	Description	Required	Default
`--page-size <SIZE>`	Maximum number of notebooks to return (1-500)	No	500

Examples¶

List all recent notebooks:

nblm notebooks recent

Limit results:

nblm notebooks recent --page-size 10

JSON output:

nblm --json notebooks recent

Output:

{
  "notebooks": [
    {
      "title": "My Research Notebook",
      "notebookId": "abc123",
      "name": "projects/123456789012/locations/global/notebooks/abc123",
      "createTime": "2025-10-20T09:00:00Z",
      "updateTime": "2025-10-25T15:30:00Z"
    },
    {
      "title": "Project Documentation",
      "notebookId": "def456",
      "name": "projects/123456789012/locations/global/notebooks/def456",
      "createTime": "2025-10-25T10:30:00Z",
      "updateTime": "2025-10-25T10:30:00Z"
    }
  ]
}

Extract specific fields with jq:

# Get all notebook titles
nblm --json notebooks recent | jq '.notebooks[].title'

# Get all notebook IDs
nblm --json notebooks recent | jq '.notebooks[].notebookId'

# Get the most recently updated notebook
nblm --json notebooks recent | jq '.notebooks[0]'

API Limitations

Notebooks are sorted by most recently updated first
The --page-size option is accepted but pagination is not implemented by the API (as of 2025-10-25)
All notebooks are returned regardless of --page-size value

delete¶

Delete one or more notebooks.

Usage¶

nblm notebooks delete --notebook-name <NAME> [--notebook-name <NAME>...]

Options¶

Option	Description	Required
`--notebook-name <NAME>`	Full notebook resource name (can be repeated)	Yes

Examples¶

Delete a single notebook:

nblm notebooks delete \
  --notebook-name "projects/123456789012/locations/global/notebooks/abc123"

Delete multiple notebooks:

nblm notebooks delete \
  --notebook-name "projects/123456789012/locations/global/notebooks/abc123" \
  --notebook-name "projects/123456789012/locations/global/notebooks/def456"

Get notebook name from recent list:

# Get the full notebook name
NOTEBOOK_NAME=$(nblm --json notebooks recent | jq -r '.notebooks[0].name')

# Delete it
nblm notebooks delete --notebook-name "$NOTEBOOK_NAME"

Notes¶

Important: Despite the API being named "batchDelete", it only accepts one notebook at a time (as of 2025-10-25)
The CLI automatically handles this limitation by calling the API sequentially for each notebook
Deletion is permanent and cannot be undone
All sources and content within the notebook are also deleted

Common Patterns¶

Create and save notebook ID¶

# Create notebook and extract ID
NOTEBOOK_ID=$(nblm --json notebooks create --title "My Notebook" | jq -r '.notebookId')

echo "Created notebook: $NOTEBOOK_ID"

# Use the ID in subsequent commands
nblm sources add --notebook-id "$NOTEBOOK_ID" --web-url "https://example.com"

List and filter notebooks¶

# Find notebooks by title
nblm --json notebooks recent | jq '.notebooks[] | select(.title | contains("Research"))'

# Count notebooks
nblm --json notebooks recent | jq '.notebooks | length'

# Get notebooks created today
TODAY=$(date +%Y-%m-%d)
nblm --json notebooks recent | jq ".notebooks[] | select(.createTime | startswith(\"$TODAY\"))"

Delete all notebooks (dangerous)¶

# WARNING: This deletes ALL notebooks!
nblm --json notebooks recent | \
  jq -r '.notebooks[].name' | \
  xargs -I {} nblm notebooks delete --notebook-name {}

Error Handling¶

Common Errors¶

Notebook not found:

Error: Notebook not found
Cause: The specified notebook does not exist or has been deleted

Permission denied:

Error: Permission denied
Cause: Your account does not have access to this notebook or project

Invalid notebook name format:

Error: Invalid notebook name format
Cause: Notebook name must be in format: projects/PROJECT_NUMBER/locations/LOCATION/notebooks/NOTEBOOK_ID

Next Steps¶

Sources Commands - Add content to notebooks
Audio Commands - Create audio overviews