jupyterlab_deepnote

A Deepnote extension for JupyterLab

This extension is composed of a Python package named jupyterlab_deepnote for the server extension and a NPM package named jupyterlab-deepnote for the frontend extension.

Requirements

• JupyterLab >= 4.0.0

Install

To install the extension:

pip install jupyterlab_deepnote

Uninstall

To remove the extension, execute:

pip uninstall jupyterlab_deepnote

Troubleshoot

If you are seeing the frontend extension, but it is not working, check that the server extension is enabled:

jupyter server extension list

If the server extension is installed and enabled, but you are not seeing the frontend extension, check the frontend extension is installed:

jupyter labextension list

Contributing

Development install

Note: You will need NodeJS to build the extension package.

Use any Python environment and dependency manager you like, for example uv:

curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh

Create a Python environment in the project directory:

uv venv --python 3.12 --managed-python

Activate the Python environment:

source .venv/bin/activate

Install jupyterlab. The extension package itself doesn’t depend on jupyterlab, you just need jupyterlab in the environment where you will be testing the extension.

uv pip install jupyterlab

Configure Access to @deepnote/blocks Package

The @deepnote/blocks package is published on GitHub Packages. To install it, you'll need to authenticate with GitHub:

1. Create a GitHub Personal Access Token (classic) with read:packages scope:

   • Go to https://github.com/settings/tokens
   • Click "Generate new token (classic)"
   • Select the read:packages scope
   • Generate and copy the token

2. Set the GITHUB_TOKEN environment variable to ensure jlpm (which is a wrapper around Yarn) can download the @deepnote/blocks package from the GitHub package registry. You can export the variable in .zshrc (or by reading a ~/.env file):

   export GITHUB_TOKEN=your_token_here

   Replace YOUR_TOKEN_HERE with your actual token.

Install the extension package in editable mode. It installs the package’s dependencies, too:

uv pip install --editable . --verbose

Link your development version of the extension with JupyterLab:

jupyter labextension develop . --overwrite

Enable the extension in Jupyter Server:

jupyter server extension enable jupyterlab_deepnote

Rebuild the extension’s Typescript source after making changes:

jlpm run watch

The jlpm command is JupyterLab's pinned version of yarn that is installed with JupyterLab. You may use yarn or npm in lieu of jlpm below.

In a separate terminal, run jupyter lab with the --config option to register our custom file contents manager for the .deepnote extension. The --debug option lets you see HTTP requests in the logs, which is helpful for debugging.

jupyter lab --debug --config="$(pwd)/jupyter-config/server-config/jupyter_server_config.json"

You can watch the source directory and run JupyterLab at the same time in different terminals to watch for changes in the extension's source and automatically rebuild the extension.

# Watch the source directory in one terminal, automatically rebuilding when needed
jlpm watch
# Run JupyterLab in another terminal
jupyter lab

With the watch command running, every saved change will immediately be built locally and available in your running JupyterLab. Refresh JupyterLab to load the change in your browser (you may need to wait several seconds for the extension to be rebuilt).

By default, the jlpm build command generates the source maps for this extension to make it easier to debug using the browser dev tools. To also generate source maps for the JupyterLab core extensions, you can run the following command:

jupyter lab build --minimize=False

Development uninstall

# Server extension must be manually disabled in develop mode
jupyter server extension disable jupyterlab_deepnote
pip uninstall jupyterlab_deepnote

In development mode, you will also need to remove the symlink created by jupyter labextension develop command. To find its location, you can run jupyter labextension list to figure out where the labextensions folder is located. Then you can remove the symlink named jupyterlab-deepnote within that folder.

Testing the extension

Server tests

This extension is using Pytest for Python code testing.

Install test dependencies (needed only once):

pip install -e ".[test]"
# Each time you install the Python package, you need to restore the front-end extension link
jupyter labextension develop . --overwrite

To execute them, run:

pytest -vv -r ap --cov jupyterlab_deepnote

Frontend tests

This extension is using Jest for JavaScript code testing.

To execute them, execute:

jlpm
jlpm test

Packaging the extension

See RELEASE