Open Notebook 🧩 Workflow Open source

What it is

Open Notebook by lfnovo (MIT) is an open-source, self-hosted take on Google's NotebookLM. You add sources such as PDFs, web pages, YouTube videos and audio, chat with them, write notes, and generate podcast-style audio overviews with multiple speakers. Unlike NotebookLM you choose the AI providers, including local models, and keep your data on your own server. Notebooks, notes and generated episodes stay in its own database, and the REST API lets you script source ingestion and podcast generation from other tools such as n8n or a CMS, which NotebookLM does not offer.

Key features

• Notebooks of sources: PDFs, URLs, YouTube, audio and more
• Chat and search across sources with citations
• Podcast generation with configurable multi-speaker profiles
• Choice of many AI providers (OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, Ollama and others)
• REST API for automation
• Docker deployment

How to install

Download the compose file with curl -o docker-compose.yml https://raw.githubusercontent.com/lfnovo/open-notebook/main/docker-compose.yml, set your API keys, and run docker compose up -d; then open the web UI.

Pricing and rights

Free under MIT. You pay for the model and TTS APIs you configure, or nothing extra with local models. Podcast audio rights follow your TTS provider's terms.

Who it is for

Researchers, educators and podcasters who like NotebookLM's workflow but need privacy, provider choice or an API.

Verdict

A well-maintained, practical NotebookLM alternative with real podcast output. Audio quality and naturalness depend on the TTS you use and usually trail NotebookLM's own voices.