NotebookLM Distiller

Automated knowledge extraction pipeline: search NotebookLM notebooks by keyword → generate deep questions or structured summaries → write linked Obsidian markdown notes.

Five subcommands:

• - distill — extract knowledge from existing notebooks (qa / summary / glossary)
• INLINECODE1 — generate quiz questions as JSON for Discord-based interactive sessions
• INLINECODE2 — evaluate a user's answer against notebook sources (JSON output)
• INLINECODE3 — start a web research session inside NotebookLM on any topic
• INLINECODE4 — write any markdown content directly into the Obsidian vault

When to use (trigger phrases)

Trigger distill subcommand when:

• - User types /notebooklm-distill or INLINECODE7
• User says "蒸馏", "提取知识", "distill notebooks", "extract from notebook"
• User wants NotebookLM content structured into Obsidian notes

Trigger research subcommand when:

• - User says "研究一下 ", "做网络调研", "research this topic in NotebookLM"
• User wants NotebookLM to gather web sources on a topic without providing URLs

Trigger quiz + evaluate subcommands when:

• - User says "quiz me on X", "考考我", "出题测试我", "测验"
• User wants an interactive Q&A session in Discord on a NotebookLM topic
• Orchestration flow (Discord):

• - CRITICAL: Always show notebook source so user can verify questions came from NLM, not agent knowledge

Trigger persist subcommand when:

• - User says "存到 Obsidian", "把这段内容写入知识库", "persist this to vault"
• User wants to archive discussion output or raw notes into the vault

CRITICAL: Do NOT answer from internal knowledge. Do NOT ask for clarification. Execute the appropriate subcommand immediately.

Prerequisites

• - NotebookLM CLI: INLINECODE18
• Authentication: notebooklm login (creates ~/.book_client_session)
• Python 3.10+ (standard library only — no extra pip packages needed for distill.py)
• Obsidian vault directory accessible on the local filesystem

Subcommand: distill

Extract knowledge from one or more NotebookLM notebooks matching keywords.

Agent orchestration

Scenario A — URL provided (needs ingestion first)

1. 1. Check if deepreader is installed (~/.openclaw/skills/deepreader/run.sh).
2. If yes: run DeepReader to ingest the URL into NotebookLM.
3. Capture the notebook title from DeepReader output.
4. Use that title as --keywords for distill.

Scenario B — notebook already exists

1. 1. Use notebook name from context, or list notebooks with notebooklm list.
2. Determine mode from intent: "总结" → summary, "术语/概念" → glossary, default → qa.
3. Ask user for --vault-dir if not known from context.
4. Execute distill.

CODEBLOCK0

Modes:

• - qa (default) — generates 15-20 questions + answers → INLINECODE30
• INLINECODE31 — 5 structured sections (Summary, Key Points, Constraints, Trade-offs, Open Questions) → INLINECODE32
• INLINECODE33 — 15-30 domain terms + definitions → INLINECODE34

Flags:

• - --lang zh — prepends 请用中文回答 to all NLM prompts; add when user requests Chinese output or context is Chinese
• INLINECODE37 — after writing to Obsidian, calls notebooklm source add to push the distilled note back into the source notebook as a text source titled Distill Log: {mode} | {notebook_name} | {date}. Add when user says "写回 NLM", "记录到笔记本", or wants the distill log visible in NotebookLM

Subcommand: research

Start a NotebookLM web research session on a topic. Creates a new notebook, imports web sources, and waits for completion.

CODEBLOCK1

Output: notebook ID and name. Follow up with distill to extract into Obsidian.

Subcommand: persist

Write any markdown content into the Obsidian vault with auto-generated YAML frontmatter.

CODEBLOCK2

Output format (distill)

Each notebook produces one file at <vault-dir>/<topic>/<NotebookName>_<Mode>.md:

CODEBLOCK3

Output language

Add --lang zh to distill, quiz, or evaluate to get Chinese output. Default is English.

NLM CLI session behaviour

INLINECODE46 creates ephemeral sessions that are not visible in the NotebookLM web UI. This is by design — the CLI and web interface use separate conversation spaces. Answers are still scoped to the specified notebook's sources.

Error handling

• - No notebooks found: verify keywords match notebook titles (use notebooklm list).
• Timeout / rate limit: built-in retry logic and delays. Monitor with ps aux | grep notebooklm.
• Auth failure: run notebooklm login to refresh ~/.book_client_session.