I built a Claude system prompt that automatically populates NotebookLM notebooks

March 2, 2026
I built a Claude system prompt that automatically populates NotebookLM notebooks

Here's something that caught my attention — someone built a system that makes research in NotebookLM way smarter. Instead of wasting time hunting down sources, this setup, created by /u/Particular-Welcome-1, hands the job over to Claude. So, you give it a topic, and it kicks off by making a structured research plan — organized into clear phases and prioritizing solid academic sources like arXiv, PubMed, or government reports. What’s clever? It checks every URL before adding it, catching silent errors or paywalls that often slip through. And get this — since the system saves its state right inside the notebook, if Claude hits its session limit, you just start a new chat, paste the URL, and it picks up right where it left off. When it’s done, Claude writes a full report, detailing every source used or skipped. The full setup is on GitHub, according to /u/Particular-Welcome-1, and honestly, this could save busy researchers a ton of time — and frustration.

I've been using NotebookLM heavily for research and got tired of manually hunting down and adding sources. So I wrote a system prompt that hands the whole process off to Claude.

When you give it a topic, Claude starts by creating the notebook and drafting a structured research plan for your approval — organized into thematic phases and prioritizing academic and institutional sources (arXiv, PubMed, government reports, technical standards) over generic web content. It validates every URL before adding it, fetching and inspecting each one to catch silent 404s, paywalls, and login walls that NotebookLM would otherwise silently accept.

State is persisted across sessions using notes inside the notebook itself, so when Claude hits its session limit you just start a new conversation, paste the notebook URL, and it picks up where it left off. When the notebook is complete, Claude writes a full _REPORT note documenting every source added, skipped, or recommended.

Full prompt and setup instructions are on GitHub: github.com/stablediffusiontrainer-cmd/notebooklm-research-skill

Happy to answer questions about how it works or how I built it.

submitted by /u/Particular-Welcome-1
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Audio Transcript

I've been using NotebookLM heavily for research and got tired of manually hunting down and adding sources. So I wrote a system prompt that hands the whole process off to Claude.

When you give it a topic, Claude starts by creating the notebook and drafting a structured research plan for your approval — organized into thematic phases and prioritizing academic and institutional sources (arXiv, PubMed, government reports, technical standards) over generic web content. It validates every URL before adding it, fetching and inspecting each one to catch silent 404s, paywalls, and login walls that NotebookLM would otherwise silently accept.

State is persisted across sessions using notes inside the notebook itself, so when Claude hits its session limit you just start a new conversation, paste the notebook URL, and it picks up where it left off. When the notebook is complete, Claude writes a full _REPORT note documenting every source added, skipped, or recommended.

Full prompt and setup instructions are on GitHub: github.com/stablediffusiontrainer-cmd/notebooklm-research-skill

Happy to answer questions about how it works or how I built it.

submitted by /u/Particular-Welcome-1
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