Prerequisites¶
Before proceeding with installation, you need to verify that you have all the required components. The system consists of three components (Claude Desktop, NotebookLM, and the MCP server) that work together and each require their own prerequisites.
Claude Desktop¶
A Claude Pro subscription (or higher) and the Claude Desktop application installed on your computer are required. Claude Desktop is available for Windows, macOS, and Linux.
The application can be downloaded from Anthropic's official website: claude.ai/download. Once installed, simply log in with your Claude account credentials.
Why Claude Desktop
The MCP server is designed specifically for Claude Desktop. Other versions of Claude (such as Claude Code or the web interface) may not support all the features described in this manual, particularly the automatic authentication flow.
NotebookLM¶
A Google account is required, either free or paid. NotebookLM is accessible at notebooklm.google.com.
Free accounts have the following limits:
- maximum 100 notebooks;
- up to 50 sources per notebook;
- up to 500,000 words per source;
- maximum 200 MB per uploaded file;
- 50 queries per day to NotebookLM. Paid accounts (NotebookLM Plus) offer higher limits across all categories, including 500 daily queries and up to 300 sources per notebook.
Accepted sources include audio files, images, Google documents (Docs, Slides, Sheets), Microsoft Word files, PDFs, text and Markdown files, web URLs, public YouTube video URLs, as well as text copied and pasted directly.
Node.js¶
The MCP server is a Node.js application. You need to have Node.js version 18 or later installed on your computer.
To check if Node.js is already installed, open a terminal and type:
node --version
If the command returns a version number equal to or greater than v18.0.0, the requirement is met. If the command is not recognized or the version is lower, you need to install or update Node.js.
To install Node.js, download the LTS (Long Term Support) version from the official website nodejs.org. The guided installer takes care of everything: it downloads the package, installs it, and configures the necessary environment variables. After installation, close and reopen the terminal before verifying the version.
Chrome¶
Chrome is required only for the authentication phase.
Summary¶
| Component | Requirement | Where to verify |
|---|---|---|
| Claude | Pro subscription (minimum) + Claude Desktop | claude.ai/download |
| NotebookLM | Google account | notebooklm.google.com |
| Node.js | Version 18+ | node --version in the terminal |