How do I install the Open Notebook skill?

Run npx skillmds@latest add sergeesteves/open-notebook in your terminal (requires Node.js), paste this page's agent-chat prompt into Claude, Cursor, or any MCP-connected agent, or download the SKILL.md file and copy it into your agent's skills directory.

Is Open Notebook safe to use?

This skill has not completed SkillMD's automated safety review yet. Capability flags: makes network calls, reads secrets. SkillMD never runs a skill's scripts for you; review the SKILL.md before installing.

Which AI agents work with Open Notebook?

This skill is tagged as working with Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex. SKILL.md is an open format, so most agents that read a skills directory can load it too.

Is Open Notebook free to use?

Yes. Installing skills from SkillMD is free. This skill is licensed under MIT.

Who published Open Notebook?

sergeesteves (@sergeesteves) published this skill. Their other Agent Skills are listed on their SkillMD profile.

Open Notebook by sergeesteves — Agent Skill

Name: Open Notebook
Rating: 4.666666666666667 (3 reviews)
Author: sergeesteves

Open Notebook

Drive Open Notebook (notebooks, sources, notes, chat, vector search) and handle content extraction/summarization through its two MCP servers — open-notebook-mcp (pilot a self-hosted or local instance) and content-core (standalone extraction/summarization). Use whenever you want to create/list notebooks, add sources (URL/file/text), generate notes, search an Open Notebook base, or pick the right URL-extraction engine (Auto/Firecrawl/Jina/Crawl4AI/Simple).

sergeesteves Updated Sep 22, 2026

File contents

Open Notebook — pilot + extraction (MCP)

Open Notebook is an open-source, privacy-focused alternative to NotebookLM: notebooks, sources, notes, chat over your research base, podcasts. You drive it from Claude (or any MCP client) through two distinct MCP servers — don't mix them up:

MCP	Role	When
`open-notebook-mcp`	Pilot your instance: notebooks, sources, notes, chat, search, models, settings	Manage/query your Open Notebook base
`content-core`	Extract / summarize any URL / file / text (standalone — does not talk to Open Notebook)	One-off extraction without a notebook

Connection, config and the full tool list → references/mcp-setup.md.

Connecting to your instance

URL: {{OPEN_NOTEBOOK_URL}} — the root, without /api (the MCP appends /api itself). Locally that's typically http://localhost:5055.
Password: if the instance has password protection enabled, open-notebook-mcp needs OPEN_NOTEBOOK_PASSWORD (env var / credential — never in a file or commit).
AI providers & hosting are out of scope here — Open Notebook works with 18+ providers and can run locally or self-hosted; this skill only needs the URL (and password, if any).

What you can ask for (pilot)

"List my notebooks" · "Create a notebook X"
"Add this URL / this PDF / this text as a source in X"
"Summarize the key points into a note in X"
"Search my notebooks for anything about Y" (vector + full-text search)
"Start a chat on this source / this topic"

Rules

Never hard-code the instance URL or the password in code, logs or a commit — env vars / credential only.
URL-extraction engine choice: Auto (recommended default); Crawl4AI for JS-heavy pages (browser rendering); Simple only for static HTML. See references/extraction.md.
Don't confuse the two servers: to manage notebooks → open-notebook-mcp; to extract a URL on the fly → content-core.

---name: open-notebookdescription: Drive Open Notebook (notebooks, sources, notes, chat, vector search) and handle content extraction/summarization through its two MCP servers — open-notebook-mcp (pilot a self-hosted or local instance) and content-core (standalone extraction/summarization). Use whenever you want to create/list notebooks, add sources (URL/file/text), generate notes, search an Open Notebook base, or pick the right URL-extraction engine (Auto/Firecrawl/Jina/Crawl4AI/Simple).license: MIT---# Open Notebook — pilot + extraction (MCP)[Open Notebook](https://github.com/lfnovo/open-notebook) is an open-source, privacy-focusedalternative to NotebookLM: notebooks, sources, notes, chat over your research base, podcasts. Youdrive it from Claude (or any MCP client) through **two distinct MCP servers** — don't mix them up:| MCP | Role | When ||---|---|---|| **`open-notebook-mcp`** | **Pilot** your instance: notebooks, sources, notes, chat, search, models, settings | Manage/query your Open Notebook base || **`content-core`** | **Extract / summarize** any URL / file / text (standalone — does not talk to Open Notebook) | One-off extraction without a notebook |Connection, config and the full tool list → [`references/mcp-setup.md`](references/mcp-setup.md).## Connecting to your instance- **URL**: `{{OPEN_NOTEBOOK_URL}}` — the **root**, without `/api` (the MCP appends `/api` itself). Locally that's typically `http://localhost:5055`.- **Password**: if the instance has password protection enabled, `open-notebook-mcp` needs `OPEN_NOTEBOOK_PASSWORD` (env var / credential — never in a file or commit).- **AI providers & hosting are out of scope here** — Open Notebook works with 18+ providers and can run locally or self-hosted; this skill only needs the URL (and password, if any).## What you can ask for (pilot)- "List my notebooks" · "Create a notebook *X*"- "Add this URL / this PDF / this text as a source in *X*"- "Summarize the key points into a note in *X*"- "Search my notebooks for anything about *Y*" (vector + full-text search)- "Start a chat on this source / this topic"## Rules1. **Never hard-code the instance URL or the password** in code, logs or a commit — env vars / credential only.2. **URL-extraction engine choice**: `Auto` (recommended default); `Crawl4AI` for JS-heavy pages (browser rendering); `Simple` only for static HTML. See [`references/extraction.md`](references/extraction.md).3. **Don't confuse the two servers**: to **manage notebooks** → `open-notebook-mcp`; to **extract a URL on the fly** → `content-core`.

Frequently asked questions