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What Your Assistant Can Do

Once connected, your AI app can use 166 Kortex tools on your Gemini Notebook (formerly NotebookLM) notebooks and saved chats. MCP is a standard way to let AI apps like Claude or ChatGPT use Kortex's tools. You ask in plain words, and the app picks the right tool.

This needs Kortex Pro. See pricing.

Comparing two notebooks in the chat: what both have, what only one has, then copy, move or merge

What can I ask my AI app to do?​

  • "List my notebooks."
  • "Ask my Product Docs notebook what our refund window is, and show me the sources."
  • "Add these five links to my Competitor notebook, then make a briefing."
  • "Make a quiz from my biology notebook."
  • "Which of my notebooks have no tags? Tag them for me."
  • "What did I decide about pricing in my earlier chats?"
  • "Save what we just did as a workflow called weekly digest."

Your assistant picks the tools. The list below is here so you know what is possible, and what each key profile lets through.

How to read the list
  • Tools that start with list_, get_, search_, ask_, compare_ or is_ only look. They change nothing.
  • Tools that change something are marked WRITE. Tools that cannot be undone are marked DESTRUCTIVE.
  • A destructive tool asks first. It says what it would affect and changes nothing until the assistant asks again with confirm: true. A good assistant asks you before it does that.

Panels in the chat​

Thirteen tools open a small panel in the chat, so you can click instead of read: get_source_content, ask_question, ask_library, open_artifact_studio, pick_prompt, open_organizer, list_podcasts, get_artifact_content (flashcards and quizzes), compare_notebooks, list_all_sources, open_importer, list_workflows and rate_kortex.

A flashcard panel in the chat, with Flip and Explain buttons A quiz panel in the chat, with answers to pick and a Show hint link

The full list​

The tools are grouped by what they touch. Lists below show the tool names, so you can match them to what your assistant tells you it is doing.

Connection & account​

  • get_status: Whether the extension is connected, which Google account calls run as, and the extension version
  • list_accounts: Every Gemini Notebook account available to this Kortex user
  • get_usage: Your Kortex quota usage for imports, exports, prompts and source views
  • get_notebooklm_usage: Google's own account state — the Google-side limits that account has hit. A different ceiling from the one above, and the one that stops an Audio Overview generating
  • get_account_metadata: The raw Kortex metadata blob for the active account
  • rate_kortex: Ask you in a small panel whether Kortex is working well for you
  • get_job: The result of a long-running tool. Anything that may outlast the request hands back a job id instead of timing out; your assistant polls this until it is done

Notebooks & sources​

  • open_organizer: A panel for questions like "which notebooks have no tags?", where you can tag, file or favourite many notebooks at once
  • list_notebooks, get_notebook: List notebooks, or read one with its full source list
  • list_sources, list_all_sources: Sources in one notebook, or across your whole library. notebook_id is optional — omit it and you get every source, each row carrying the notebook it belongs to, instead of listing notebooks and asking once per notebook
  • get_source_content: Read a source page by page, as text or HTML, with a cursor for the next page
  • get_source_summaries: Gemini Notebook's own summary and key topics for your sources, without reading a word of the source text. Omit the ids and it does the whole notebook in one call — the cheap way to find out what is in a library
  • get_notebook_guide: The notebook's own summary plus the questions Gemini Notebook suggests about it, each with the ready-made prompt behind it
  • get_formatted_content: Return a source or all notes as Markdown or plain text, with no download
  • create_notebook, rename_notebook, duplicate_notebook: Create, rename or clone a notebook
  • merge_notebooks, move_sources_between_notebooks, compare_notebooks: Combine notebooks, move sources between them, or diff two by source title
  • rename_source, is_source_ready, refresh_notebook_data: Rename a source, check ingestion status, force a data refresh
  • delete_sources, delete_notebook, delete_bad_sources: Destructive. Permanent deletion of sources, a notebook, or every failed/empty source
  • set_notebook_language, list_supported_languages: Set the language a notebook answers and generates in
  • share_notebook, open_notebook: Read sharing, publish to anyone with the link, or invite someone by email as viewer or editor; open a notebook in your browser

compare_notebooks opens a panel in the chat (shown at the top of this page). Tick the sources that one notebook is missing, copy or move them across, or merge both into a new notebook.

Asking questions​

  • ask_question: A grounded question against one notebook. Returns the answer, citations and a session_id for follow-ups
  • ask_library: The same question across up to three notebooks, chosen by id, tag or collection
  • list_chat_sessions, reset_chat_session, close_chat_session: Manage the durable conversation threads behind session_id
  • batch_to_vault: Run a long list of questions against a notebook and keep every answer with its citations
  • save_chat_to_note: Save the latest answer, citations included, as a native Notebook note

Adding sources​

  • open_importer: A panel for bringing links in
  • add_url_source, add_text_source: Add web pages, YouTube links, or pasted text
  • add_google_doc, sync_google_docs: Link a Google Doc as a live source and re-read it later
  • save_url, save_snippet, fetch_url: Fetch and clean a public page, save a passage, or read a page without saving it
  • start_file_upload, upload_file_chunk, finish_file_upload, cancel_file_upload: Upload a local PDF, DOCX or TXT in chunks (50 MiB max, one-hour staging)
  • import_youtube: Import up to 50 videos from a channel, playlist or search page
  • import_pipeline: Bulk-import from a link list, CSV, RSS/Atom feed, or a bounded site crawl
  • import_social_post, export_chat_to_notebook: Import a Reddit post, or an AI chat conversation from a supported platform
  • research_sources: Start, poll and import source discovery — Fast, or Deep Research for a thorough pass that takes minutes

Studio artifacts & podcasts​

  • generate_audio_overview, generate_artifact: Start an Audio Overview, study guide, video overview or data table
  • list_artifacts, export_artifact, delete_artifact: Check generation status, export to media/Markdown/CSV/Docs/Sheets, or delete. list_artifacts takes an optional notebook_id: omit it to sweep every notebook in one call, with anything unreadable reported rather than failing the sweep
  • get_artifact_content: The cards, questions or nodes inside a flashcard deck, quiz or mind map — the parts the list view does not carry
  • open_artifact_studio: Open the interactive Studio view in your client, to pick sources and options before generating
  • rename_artifact: Retitle a Studio artifact, so a column of identical "Briefing Doc" rows becomes navigable
  • revise_slide_deck: Revise named slides of an existing deck. Expected to produce a new deck and leave the original alone; the reply tells you which happened
  • list_podcasts, create_podcast, update_podcast, delete_podcast: Manage Kortex podcasts built from Audio Overviews
  • add_podcast_episode, remove_podcast_episode, reorder_podcast_episodes: Manage the episode list
  • get_podcast_feed_url, download_podcast_zip: Get the public RSS URL, or download every episode as a ZIP

A finished flashcard deck or quiz opens as something you can work through, one card or question at a time.

A podcast feed in the chat: rename it, reorder or remove episodes, and get its RSS feed address

The podcast tools open a view with the feed's details, its episodes and their order, and a button to get its RSS address. RSS is the web address that podcast apps use to follow a feed.

Notes​

  • list_notes: Native Notebook notes and generated artifacts
  • create_notebooklm_note, update_notebooklm_note, delete_notebooklm_note: Write to Gemini Notebook's own Studio notes
  • convert_note_to_source: Turn a note into a new source in the same notebook
  • list_kortex_notes, save_kortex_note, delete_kortex_note: Kortex's own notes, attached to a notebook in the dashboard
  • list_note_templates, save_note_template, delete_note_template: Reusable note bodies

Organising your library​

  • list_collections, create_collection, rename_collection, move_collection, pin_collection, delete_collection: Kortex collections (the folders in your dashboard)
  • move_notebook_to_collection: File a notebook into a collection
  • list_notebooklm_collections, create_notebooklm_collection, migrate_collections_to_notebooklm: Gemini Notebook's own native collections, and a one-way migration from Kortex folders
  • update_notebooklm_collection, delete_notebooklm_collection: Rename a native collection, set its emoji, add or remove notebooks, or delete the grouping. The notebooks themselves are never deleted
  • list_tags, tag_notebook, untag_notebook, delete_tag, set_favorite: Notebook tags and favourites
  • list_source_organizers, create_source_folder, assign_source_to_folder, tag_source, bulk_assign_source_organizers: Source tags and folders, one at a time or in bulk
  • delete_source_folder, delete_source_tag: Destructive. Remove a source folder or tag everywhere
  • list_source_labels, create_source_label, update_source_label, delete_source_labels: Gemini Notebook's native source labels, with emoji
  • auto_label_sources: Let Gemini Notebook invent labels for a notebook and file every source under them. Its own auto-organise, not a Kortex guess
  • set_source_highlight, set_source_note: Private colour highlights and notes on a source
  • list_source_views, save_source_view, delete_source_view: Named subsets of sources you can re-select later
  • list_notebook_templates, save_notebook_as_template, apply_notebook_template: Reusable presets of tags and collections
  • list_source_templates, save_source_as_template, apply_source_template: Reusable presets of source tags and a folder

Doing many things at once​

Kortex does its jobs one at a time. Google's notebooks do not like many requests at once. So twenty separate requests make twenty trips, and asking in parallel does not help.

The bulk tool fixes this. It is like handing a clerk a stack of forms in one go, instead of one form at a time. One request carries many targets, and Kortex works through them at a safe speed: five reads, three writes or two generations at a time.

One at a time, or all at once
  • bulk: Run one tool over many targets in a single request. Your assistant reaches for it whenever the same tool is about to be used more than about three times

Creating and filling in one step. A create_notebook entry may carry its own urls. Each item then makes the notebook and adds its sources:

bulk(tool: "create_notebook", calls: [
  { title: "Ancient Rome",       urls: [...] },
  { title: "Deep Sea Creatures", urls: [...] }
])

If it does not all fit. A long batch stops cleanly rather than timing out. Unfinished entries come back marked "Not attempted" with a task_id. Ask bulk again with that id and it carries on where it stopped.

What it will not do. bulk only runs a fixed list of safe tools: creating notebooks, adding sources, tagging, renaming, generating artifacts and reading. It refuses every tool that deletes. One yes covering twenty deletions is exactly what the confirm step is there to prevent, so delete one at a time, on purpose.

Search, health & prompts​

  • search_everything: One search across notebooks, sources, notes, artifacts, collections, tags and podcasts
  • get_library_health: Bad sources, never-viewed sources, failed artifacts, notebooks near their cap
  • dedupe_library: A resumable duplicate scan across every notebook's sources
  • semantic_library_metadata: Build and maintain a searchable description of each notebook, so your assistant can pick the right one
  • list_prompts, save_prompt, delete_prompt: Your Kortex prompt library
  • pick_prompt: Choose a saved prompt and fill its placeholders, without pasting the text yourself
  • list_prompt_folders, create_prompt_folder, delete_prompt_folder: Prompt folders

Your saved AI chats​

These tools read the chats Kortex saved from ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity and Grok, plus saved YouTube videos. They read your Library on your own computer. They never reach out to an AI site.

  • search_library: Find chats, videos and notebooks that match, by words and by meaning, best first, each with a link
  • recent_chats: Your newest chats or videos, each with its opening question
  • get_chat: Read one chat a page at a time, with a link to each message on its site
  • ask_chats: Passages from earlier answers that answer a question, each tied to its message. Nothing is made up. These are your own words and answers
  • list_memory_cards: The short facts you kept in Memory, and where each came from
  • get_video: One saved YouTube video, with its details and transcript on request
  • list_folders, get_folder_items: Your Library folders, and what one folder holds
  • get_handoff_pack, get_context_pack: A ready-to-read summary of a chat or folder (its decisions, open questions and where it stopped), or your about-me and project packs
  • add_to_folder, save_chat_note, pin_message, save_memory_card: WRITE. File chats into a folder, add a note to a chat, pin a message, or keep a short fact (300 characters at most)
  • save_session: WRITE. Save the current conversation into your Library as a chat. That is how a session in Claude Code, Cursor, Codex or a desktop app gets into your Library. Saving the same session again updates it. It is refused if you have not turned on saving chats

The Library's privacy rules hold here. Chats in a private folder are left out of every list and search. Likely secrets, such as keys, tokens, passwords and card numbers, are hidden before a result leaves. Every call that carries chat text is listed in the Library's Privacy view, under Sent from this computer. Every write asks first. See Your chats over MCP.

Workflows​

A workflow is a list of steps saved under a name, so a job you repeat becomes one request. You make one by asking your assistant to save what it just did. The page Workflows and Schedules explains it.

  • list_workflows: Your saved workflows, with their steps and what each one needs
  • create_workflow, update_workflow: WRITE. Save or change a named list of steps
  • run_workflow: WRITE. Run one, with inputs if it needs them. Returns a run id
  • get_workflow_run: How a run is going: each step, whether it worked, and the final result
  • delete_workflow: DESTRUCTIVE. Remove a saved workflow

Automations​

Eight tools make and manage rules that Kortex runs on its own: list_automations, create_automation, update_automation, set_automation_enabled, delete_automation, run_automation, list_automation_runs and run_scheduled_automations. A rule keeps acting after the chat ends, so see Automation Rules and Workflows and Schedules.

Recipes​

A recipe is a named job that shows up in your assistant's / menu. Each one tells the assistant which tools to run, in order. You can start one and the assistant asks for whatever it needs. A key that cannot run a recipe's tools does not see that recipe.

  • competitor_brief: Add links to a notebook, wait for them to be read, make a briefing and export it
  • notebook_to_podcast: Make an Audio Overview, add it to a podcast and give back the feed address
  • exam_pack: Make the three study outputs from one notebook in one go
  • new_notebook_from_template: Make a notebook, apply a template, tag it and file it in a collection
  • cross_notebook_digest: Ask the same question across up to three notebooks and keep the combined answer
  • triage_notebook: Read every source summary, group sources by theme and optionally tag them
  • clean_notebook: Find sources that failed or came back empty, and remove them
  • import_links: Add many links at once and say which ones did not make it
  • youtube_to_notebook: Import a video, playlist or channel, wait for transcripts, then make a briefing
  • library_health_report: Broken sources, unopened ones and notebooks near their limit, saved as a note
  • meeting_prep: Search your library, ask the notebook that matches, and write up the answer
  • bulk_create_notebooks: Make a notebook per topic and fill each with its sources
  • recall: Search your saved AI chats, read the one that matches and answer with citations
  • find_decision: Find what you decided about something across your AI chats
  • pull_chat_spec: Bring a spec or plan from another AI into this session, word for word
  • load_folder_context: Load a Library folder's chats as background, in a few thousand characters
  • file_video: Find a YouTube video you watched and add it to a Library folder
  • save_this_session: Save this conversation to your Library

A Just my chats key lists recall, find_decision and pull_chat_spec. Your own saved prompts also show up as my-<name> commands in Claude Desktop, Claude Code and Cursor.

Related: API keys, Security and Limits, Workflows and Schedules.