4.4 Session Management

NotebookLM MCP maintains conversation context across queries via session_id.

How Sessions Work

# First query → Creates session
"In LLM Engineer Handbook, what is RAG?"
# → Returns session_id: "abc123"

# Follow-up → Uses same session
"How does it compare to fine-tuning?"
# → Uses session_id: "abc123" automatically

# Another notebook → New session
"In Playwright Guide, how do I test?"
# → New session_id: "xyz789"

Session properties:

• Automatic: Claude manages session_id for follow-up questions
• Scoped: One session per notebook per conversation
• Timeout: 15 minutes of inactivity (configurable)
• Max sessions: 10 concurrent (configurable)

List Active Sessions

"List my active NotebookLM sessions"

# Returns:
# - session_id
# - notebook_name
# - age_seconds
# - message_count
# - last_activity (timestamp)

Use case: Resume previous research threads, understand query history, debug context issues.

Manual Session Control

Resume specific session:

"Continue NotebookLM session abc123 with question: What about embeddings?"

# Claude calls: ask_question(session_id="abc123", question="...")

Force new session (ignore context):

"Ask NotebookLM in fresh session: What is RAG?"

# Claude omits session_id to create new session

Session cleanup:

Sessions auto-expire after 15 minutes. Manual cleanup via cleanup_data.