ipylab

Control JupyterLab from Python notebooks.

The goal is to provide access to most of the JupyterLab environment from the Python kernel. For example:

• Adding widgets to the main area DockPanel, left, right or top area
• Build more advanced interfaces leveraging SplitPanel, Toolbar and other Lumino widgets
• Launch arbitrary commands (new terminal, change theme, open file and so on)
• Open a workspace with a specific layout
• Listen to JupyterLab signals (notebook opened, console closed) and trigger Python callbacks

Try it online

Try it in your browser with Binder:

Or with JupyterLite:

Examples

Add Jupyter Widgets to the JupyterLab interface

Execute Commands

Custom Python Commands and Command Palette

Build small applications

Compatibility with RetroLab

A subset of the features can be used in RetroLab:

Installation

You can install using pip:

pip install ipylab

Or with mamba / conda:

mamba install -c conda-forge ipylab

Running the examples locally

To try out the examples locally, the recommended way is to create a new environment with the dependencies:

# create a new conda environment
conda create -n ipylab-examples -c conda-forge jupyterlab ipylab ipytree bqplot ipywidgets numpy
conda activate ipylab-examples

# start JupyterLab
jupyter lab

Under the hood

ipylab can be seen as a proxy from Python to JupyterLab over Jupyter Widgets:

Development

# create a new conda environment
mamba create -n ipylab -c conda-forge nodejs python=3.11 -y

# activate the environment
conda activate ipylab

# install the Python package
pip install -e ".[dev]"

# link the extension files
jupyter labextension develop . --overwrite

# compile the extension
jlpm clean
jlpm build

# pre-commit (optional)
pip install pre-commit
pre-commit run

# or, to install the git hook
pre-commit install

# Use jlpm script to lint the JS
jlpm lint
#or
jlpm lint:check

VS code debugging

A config file is included to debug ipylab with Firefox.

Related projects

There are a couple of projects that also enable interacting with the JupyterLab environment from Python notebooks:

• wxyz: experimental widgets (including DockPanel)
• jupyterlab-sidecar: add widgets to the JupyterLab right area
• jupyterlab_commands: add arbitrary Python commands to the jupyterlab command palette