Google opens a preview REST API and MCP server for Gemini Notebook

Google's Gemini Notebook API, in early-access preview, lets code and MCP agents create notebooks and ingest sources, with no query tool listed.

Google has published the Gemini Notebook API (docs dated Nov 2, 2026), a REST interface for creating and managing notebooks and sources in the product formerly called NotebookLM. You can ingest web pages, YouTube videos, plain text and Markdown into persistent notebooks. A companion remote MCP server at notebook.googleapis.com/mcp exposes the same operations to agents. If you've been feeding research into notebooks by hand, that step can now be scripted or handed to Claude Code or Cursor.

The MCP page lists seven tools: create, get, list and update notebooks, and create, get and list sources. get_source reports whether processing is PROCESSING, ACTIVE or FAILED. The list has no tool for asking a notebook questions, and no tool for generating Audio Overviews or exporting. Whether those are coming is unclear; Google links a roadmap. Setup goes through gcloud. You enable notebook.googleapis.com in a Google Cloud project, then mint an Application Default Credentials token with the notebook OAuth scope. The account must have signed in to Gemini Notebook at least once. The page gives configuration for Claude Code (claude mcp add ... --transport http) and Cursor (.cursor/mcp.json).

The limits are significant. Google says the API and MCP server are an early-access Public Preview that supports only personal Google Accounts, not Workspace accounts. Its MCP docs add that pre-GA features may have limited support and that changes may not be compatible across pre-GA versions. Quota numbers and how to get into the preview weren't in what we reviewed.

Until now, agents reached notebooks through third parties. A June 18 Kortex guide said no official server existed. It described community MCP servers that rely on browser automation or undocumented APIs, and noted that the best-known one is archived. Those servers can query notebooks and generate Audio Overviews, which the official tool list doesn't cover. For querying inside chat, DEV Community reports that a Gemini app Connected App can retrieve notebook content. That app works from Gemini chats, not your own code.

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