CLAUDE.md

Guidance for Claude Code working in this repo. Also follow the file/naming conventions in CONTRIBUTING.md.

Project Overview

notebooklm-py is an unofficial async Python client for Google NotebookLM. It drives Google's internal batchexecute RPC protocol to automate notebooks, sources, AI querying, and studio artifacts (podcasts, videos, quizzes, …).

Critical constraint: the obfuscated RPC method IDs in src/notebooklm/rpc/types.py are undocumented and can break whenever Google changes them — the #1 breakage class.

Development Commands

# Canonical contributor install (respects uv.lock; full guide: docs/installation.md)
uv sync --frozen --extra browser --extra dev --extra markdown
source .venv/bin/activate
uv run playwright install chromium

uv run pytest                     # all tests (e2e excluded by default)
uv run pytest --cov               # with coverage
uv run pytest tests/e2e -m e2e    # e2e (requires auth)
uv run notebooklm --help          # CLI

Before Pushing

The pre-commit hook runs ruff (format + lint) on staged files. Also run these manually — CI fails otherwise:

uv run mypy src/notebooklm --ignore-missing-imports
uv run pytest

Architecture

cli/ (Click) → _app/ (transport-neutral business logic, reusable by MCP/HTTP adapters) → client.py + _*.py (client runtime) → rpc/ (batchexecute encode/decode).

See docs/architecture.md for the layered design, call flows, cross-cutting policies (loop affinity, idempotency, schema validation), the per-file index, and the full repository tree.

Common Pitfalls

1. RPC method IDs change — re-capture network traffic and update rpc/types.py.
2. Position-sensitive nested params — copy the shape from an existing implementation; source-id nesting varies ([id] / [[id]] / [[[id]]] / [[[[id]]]]).
3. CSRF tokens expire — call client.refresh_auth() or re-run notebooklm login.
4. Rate limiting — add delays between bulk operations.
5. Concurrency — one NotebookLMClient is bound to its open()-time event loop: create one per thread, never reuse across event loops or AuthTokens tenants. See the concurrency contract.

Usage

async with NotebookLMClient.from_storage() as client:
    notebooks = await client.notebooks.list()
    await client.sources.add_url(nb_id, url)
    answer = await client.chat.ask(nb_id, question)
    status = await client.artifacts.generate_audio(nb_id)

CLI: top-level commands (login, use, status, list, ask) plus grouped subcommands (source add, label list, artifact list, generate audio, download video, note create, mcp install <client>, …). Full reference: docs/cli-reference.md.

An opt-in MCP server (mcp extra, console script notebooklm-mcp) exposes the same _app/ business logic over the Model Context Protocol; notebooklm mcp install <client> wires it into Claude Desktop/Code, Cursor, or Windsurf, and desktop-extension/ packages a one-click .mcpb bundle.

An opt-in single-tenant REST server (server extra, console script notebooklm-server) exposes guarded /v1 FastAPI routes over the same _app/ layer. It is experimental, loopback-bound by default, and requires NOTEBOOKLM_SERVER_TOKEN; see docs/installation.md#rest-api-server.

Testing

Unit (tests/unit/, no network; includes _app, CLI, server, and guardrail tests) · integration (tests/integration/, VCR cassette replay) · e2e (tests/e2e/, real API, @pytest.mark.e2e). VCR cassettes match on rpcids + decoded body shape. Details: docs/development.md.

Docs

docs/: installation · cli-reference · python-api · configuration · troubleshooting · development · architecture · mcp-guide · rpc-development · rpc-reference · stability · adr/.

Pull Request Workflow (required)

After opening a PR, drive it to merge:

1. Poll gh pr checks <PR> until all pass; investigate and fix any failures.
2. Address every review comment (especially gemini-code-assist): make the fix, push, then reply on the thread (Addressed in <SHA>: …). Unreplied threads block merge.
3. Not done until all checks pass, all threads addressed, and mergeStateStatus is CLEAN.

Claude review is not automatic — comment @claude review on the PR to trigger the .github/workflows/claude.yml workflow. Treat claude[bot] as a first-class reviewer the merge gate waits on, alongside gemini-code-assist / coderabbitai:

• It posts inline review-thread comments plus a sticky summary comment ("Claude finished … task"). The action does not submit a formal GitHub review, so claude[bot] never appears in gh pr view --json reviews / reviewDecision and is not a required check — do not infer "claude reviewed" from those.
• gh pr checks may show a claude entry as skipping: every comment (incl. other bots') fires claude.yml, and runs not from a teng-lin @claude comment correctly skip via the job if: gate. That skip is not the review run — find the real one with gh run list --workflow=claude.yml --json event,conclusion (look for the success run) or just read the comment below.
• Before merging, confirm the review landed and address it. The two halves live on different endpoints: the sticky summary is an issue comment (gh api /repos/<owner>/<repo>/issues/<PR>/comments), and the inline findings are pull-request review comments on the diff (gh api /repos/<owner>/<repo>/pulls/<PR>/comments) — filter either with --jq '.[]|select(.user.login=="claude[bot]").body'. Resolve any inline claude[bot] threads like any other bot's.