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[ARTICLE · art-92469] src=github.com ↗ pub= topic=ai-tools verified=true sentiment=· neutral

Show HN: NotebookLM Calibre Plugin

A developer has released a Calibre GUI plugin that integrates with Google's NotebookLM to generate podcast-style Audio Overviews of books directly from a Calibre library. The plugin extracts the best available format (preferring PDF or TXT, falling back to EPUB/MOBI/AZW3), creates a new notebook in NotebookLM, uploads the book as a source, and triggers background generation of an Audio Overview, which can take 3 to 15 minutes. Because Google provides no official public API, the plugin relies on the open-source CLI tool gemini-notebook-mcp-cli and undocumented web endpoints, so it may break if Google changes its interface.

read2 min views1 publishedAug 11, 2026
Show HN: NotebookLM Calibre Plugin
Image: source

A Calibre GUI plugin that seamlessly integrates with Google's NotebookLM to generate podcast-style "Audio Overviews" of your books directly from your Calibre library.

By clicking a single button in Calibre, this plugin will:

  • Extract the best available format of your selected book (prefers PDF or TXT, falls back to EPUB/MOBI/AZW3).
  • Automatically create a new notebook in your Google NotebookLM account.
  • Upload your book as a source document.
  • Trigger the generation of an Audio Overview on Google's servers in the background.

Because Google does not provide an official public API for NotebookLM, this plugin relies on the open-source community CLI tool gemini-notebook-mcp-cli to communicate with the service.

Install the CLI tool by following the

installation instructions in their documentation. Ensure thenlm

command is available in your system's PATH. - Authenticate the CLI with your NotebookLM account:

nlm login

Follow the prompts to log in via your browser.

You can install this plugin directly into Calibre using the calibre-customize

command-line tool.

  • Clone or download this repository.
  • Open your terminal and navigate to the plugin folder:
cd notebooklm_plugin
  • Build and install the plugin into Calibre:
calibre-customize -b .
  • Restart Calibre.

Once installed, you need to add the plugin button to your Calibre UI:

  • Open Calibre. - Go to Preferences->** Toolbars & menus**. - Select The main toolbar(or whichever toolbar you prefer) from the top dropdown. - On the left side under "Available actions", scroll down to find .NotebookLM Audio

  • Select it and click the Right Arrow button to move it to the right side ("Current actions"). - Click Apply(or OK) at the top left.

  • Select a book in your Calibre library.

  • Click the new NotebookLM Audio(sparkles) icon in your toolbar. - A progress dialog will appear showing you the upload status.

  • Once it successfully triggers the generation, the dialog will notify you and close.

  • You can now head over to NotebookLMin your browser—your new notebook will be there, and the Audio Overview will finish generating shortly!

Unofficial API: This plugin relies on undocumented Google NotebookLM web endpoints via thenlm

CLI. If Google changes their web interface, this tool may temporarily break until the upstream CLI is updated.Background Generation: Because Audio Overviews can take anywhere from 3 to 15 minutes to generate, this plugin intentionallydoes not wait for the generation to finish, nor does it automatically download the final.wav

/.mp3

file back into Calibre. You will need to listen to or download the audio directly from the NotebookLM website once it is ready.

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