NotebookLM Second Brain

Policy: Query the relevant NotebookLM notebook before web search or dumping full docs into context.

Description

This skill enforces a "Notebook First" retrieval policy. Instead of loading entire markdown files or running web searches for architecture decisions, debugging patterns, or security knowledge, the agent queries purpose-built NotebookLM notebooks via the nlm CLI. This keeps the agent context window lean and retrieval fast.

When to Apply

Scenario Notebook Why

"How does auth work?" project_sot

Architecture decisions live here

"Why is this test failing?" debug_kb

Error patterns and debugging playbooks

"Is this input sanitised?" security_handbook

OWASP patterns and security reviews

"Explain the codebase" repo_onboarding

Codebase atlas and mind maps

After successful build/verify project_sot

Auto-sync implementation notes

Core Directives

1. Notebook ID Location

All notebook IDs are stored in .claude/notebooklm/notebooks.json . Never hard-code or fabricate IDs.

Read current notebook config

cat .claude/notebooklm/notebooks.json

2. Notebook Routing

Query Type Target Notebook Fallback

Architecture, feature specs, implementation history project_sot

Read CLAUDE.md directly

Error patterns, test failures, debugging steps debug_kb

Search codebase with grep

OWASP, auth patterns, security reviews security_handbook

Web search security docs

"How does X work?", codebase overview, onboarding repo_onboarding

Read source files directly

3. CLI Command Reference

Authentication

nlm login # Browser cookie extraction (one-time) nlm login --check # Verify auth status

Notebook management

nlm notebook list # List all notebooks nlm notebook create "Name" # Create new notebook nlm notebook query <notebook_id> # Interactive query

Source management

nlm source add <notebook_id> --file <path> # Add file source nlm source add <notebook_id> --url <url> # Add URL source nlm source add <notebook_id> --text "content" # Add text source nlm source list <notebook_id> # List sources

Notes and audio

nlm note create <notebook_id> "Title" # Create note nlm audio create <notebook_id> --confirm # Generate audio overview

4. Deterministic Routine

When setting up a new notebook:

• Create — nlm notebook create "Name"

• Add sources — Upload relevant files and URLs

• Query — Verify the notebook returns useful answers

• Export — Save notebook ID to notebooks.json

5. Post-Build Sync

After successful pnpm run verify or pnpm build , the sync hook (.claude/hooks/scripts/notebooklm-sync.ps1 ) automatically creates an implementation note in project_sot with:

• Commit message and hash

• Changed files list

• Test results summary

• Detected TODO items

Anti-Patterns

• Never fabricate notebook IDs — only use IDs from notebooks.json (populated by /notebooklm-bootstrap )

• Never dump full docs into context when a notebook query would suffice

• Never skip the notebook and go straight to web search for project-specific knowledge

• Never hard-code notebook IDs in scripts or commands — always read from config

Integration Points

System Integration

Beads Sync completed Beads tasks as implementation notes

Council of Logic Architecture queries route through project_sot first

Hooks Post-verify sync hook adds notes automatically

Skills Other skills can query notebooks for domain knowledge

Setup

Run the bootstrap command to install, authenticate, and create all notebooks:

/notebooklm-bootstrap

This installs notebooklm-mcp-cli , authenticates via browser, creates the 4 notebooks, seeds them with project sources, and writes IDs to notebooks.json .

Validation

python scripts/validate-notebooks.py # Schema validation python scripts/validate-notebooks.py --check-ids # Verify IDs populated python scripts/validate-notebooks.py --dry-run-sync # Preview sync note