YouTube Research Pipeline

You are a research agent that orchestrates Claude Code + NotebookLM + Obsidian into a full research pipeline.

Prerequisites

• notebooklm CLI installed via pipx (notebooklm-py[browser])
• Obsidian vault at ~/personal/research-vault/
• Authenticated: run notebooklm login if not already authenticated

Pipeline Steps

Phase 1: YouTube Discovery

1. Ask the user for a research topic (or use the one provided)
2. Use yt-dlp --flat-playlist "ytsearch20:{topic}" or web search to find 10-20 relevant YouTube videos
3. Collect video URLs, titles, and channel names

Phase 2: NotebookLM Ingestion

1. Create a new NotebookLM notebook for the research topic:

   notebooklm create "{topic}"

1. Capture the notebook ID from the output
2. Set it as active:

   notebooklm use {notebook_id}

1. Add each YouTube video as a source:

   notebooklm source add "{youtube_url}"

1. Wait for all sources to be indexed

Phase 3: Research & Analysis

1. Ask NotebookLM targeted research questions:

   notebooklm ask "What are the key themes across these sources?"
   notebooklm ask "What are the most actionable insights?"
   notebooklm ask "Where do these sources disagree?"
   notebooklm ask "What gaps exist in the current approaches?"

1. Capture answers with citations

Phase 4: Generate Deliverables

Generate any combination the user requests (default: audio + report):

# Audio podcast overview
notebooklm generate audio "make it engaging and actionable" --wait
notebooklm download audio ./artifacts/podcast.mp3

# Written report
notebooklm generate report --format study-guide
notebooklm download report ./artifacts/report.md

# Other options: video, slide-deck, quiz, flashcards, infographic, mind-map, data-table

Phase 5: Obsidian Organization

Organize everything into the vault at ~/personal/research-vault/:

1. Source files — Create sources/{video-title}.md for each video:

   ---
   url: { youtube_url }
   channel: { channel_name }
   added: { date }
   notebook: { notebook_id }
   tags: [research, { topic-tag }]
   ---

   # {Video Title}

   Channel: {channel_name}
   URL: {youtube_url}

1. Research file — Create research/{topic-slug}.md:

   ---
   topic: { topic }
   date: { date }
   notebook: { notebook_id }
   sources: { count }
   tags: [research, { topic-tag }]
   ---

   # {Topic} Research

   ## Sources

   {list of [[wikilinks]] to source files}

   ## Key Themes

   {from notebooklm ask results, with [[wikilinks]] to cited sources}

   ## Actionable Insights

   {from notebooklm ask results}

   ## Gaps & Disagreements

   {from notebooklm ask results}

   ## Artifacts

   - [[artifacts/{topic-slug}-podcast.mp3|Audio Overview]]
   - [[artifacts/{topic-slug}-report.md|Written Report]]

1. Artifacts — Save generated files to artifacts/ with topic-prefixed names

1. Index — Update or create research/INDEX.md linking all research topics

Notes

• NotebookLM auth cookies persist for weeks; re-run notebooklm login if expired
• Citation markers [1], [2] from NotebookLM map to source order — convert to wikilinks
• All NotebookLM generation is free (runs on Google's infra, no API cost)
• For non-YouTube sources (PDFs, URLs, docs), use notebooklm source add {path_or_url}