A fast, modern toolkit for Jupyter notebooks. Native desktop app with instant startup, realtime sync across windows and agents, and intelligent environment management.
Built on runtimelib and jupyter-protocol.
Download the latest release from GitHub Releases.
The desktop app bundles everything — runt CLI and runtimed daemon.
The runt CLI and runtimed Python bindings ship with the app and stay up to date automatically. For nightly builds, use runt-nightly instead.
| Component | Description |
|---|---|
nteract |
Desktop notebook editor (Tauri + React) |
runtimed |
Background daemon — environment pools, notebook sync, kernel execution |
runt |
CLI for managing kernels, notebooks, and the daemon |
runtimed (Python) |
Python bindings for the daemon (ships with the app) |
The nteract MCP server connects AI assistants to Jupyter notebooks through the daemon. Agents can run code, read and write cells, manage dependencies, and collaborate with humans in real-time — watching the notebook update live in the desktop app while the agent works.
/plugin marketplace add nteract/claude-plugin
/plugin install nteract@nteract
Pin a specific version:
/plugin install nteract@nteract --ref v2.3.0
The plugin ships the right nteract-mcp binary for your platform (macOS arm64/x64, Linux x64, Windows x64) — no separate install needed. main of nteract/claude-plugin always points at the latest stable release.
For pre-release builds (updated daily):
/plugin install nightly@nteract
If you use the nteract desktop app with Claude Desktop, there's a one-click install path. In the menu bar, choose nteract → Install Extension for Claude...
The desktop app builds a .mcpb bundle at runtime (manifest, icons, nteract-mcp binary) and hands it to Claude Desktop, which prompts you to confirm the install. Requires the nteract desktop app; Claude Desktop picks up the bundle from there.
# Open a notebook
runt notebook path/to/notebook.ipynb
# Interactive console
runt jupyter console
# Daemon management
runt daemon status
runt daemon logs -fList open notebooks with kernel and environment info:
$ runt notebooks
╭──────────────────────────────────────┬────────┬──────────────┬────────┬───────╮
│ NOTEBOOK │ KERNEL │ ENV │ STATUS │ PEERS │
├──────────────────────────────────────┼────────┼──────────────┼────────┼───────┤
│ ~/notebooks/blobstore.ipynb │ python │ uv:inline │ idle │ 1 │
│ d4c441d3-d862-4ab0-afe6-ff9145cc2f3d │ python │ uv:prewarmed │ idle │ 1 │
╰──────────────────────────────────────┴────────┴──────────────┴────────┴───────╯
nteract/desktop
├── src/ # Shared UI code (React components, hooks, utilities)
│ ├── bindings/ # TypeScript types generated from Rust (ts-rs)
│ ├── components/
│ │ ├── ui/ # shadcn primitives (button, dialog, etc.)
│ │ ├── cell/ # Notebook cell components
│ │ ├── outputs/ # Output renderers (stream, error, display data)
│ │ ├── editor/ # CodeMirror editor
│ │ ├── isolated/ # Iframe security isolation (IsolatedFrame, CommBridgeManager)
│ │ └── widgets/ # ipywidgets controls
│ ├── hooks/ # Shared hooks (useSyncedSettings, useTheme)
│ ├── isolated-renderer/ # Code that runs inside isolated iframes
│ ├── lib/ # Shared utilities (cn(), dark-mode, error-boundary)
│ └── styles/ # Global stylesheets
├── apps/ # App entry points
│ └── notebook/ # Notebook Tauri frontend
├── crates/ # Rust code
│ ├── runt/ # CLI binary
│ ├── runtimed/ # Background daemon
│ ├── runtimed-py/ # Python bindings for the daemon
│ ├── runtimed-wasm/ # WASM Automerge bindings for frontend (same automerge crate as daemon)
│ ├── notebook/ # Notebook Tauri app
│ ├── notebook-doc/ # Shared Automerge document operations (cells, metadata, sync)
│ ├── notebook-protocol/ # Notebook wire protocol types
│ ├── notebook-sync/ # Notebook sync layer
│ ├── kernel-launch/ # Shared kernel launching API
│ ├── kernel-env/ # Environment progress reporting
│ ├── runt-mcp/ # Rust-native MCP server for notebook interaction
│ ├── runt-trust/ # HMAC trust verification
│ ├── runt-workspace/ # Workspace detection utilities
│ ├── runtimed-client/ # Shared client library for daemon communication
│ ├── repr-llm/ # LLM-friendly text summaries of visualization specs
│ ├── xtask/ # Build automation tasks
│ └── mcp-supervisor/ # nteract-dev MCP server (proxies runt mcp + adds dev tools)
├── python/ # Python packages
│ ├── runtimed/ # PyPI: runtimed (Python bindings for daemon)
│ ├── nteract/ # PyPI: nteract (thin wrapper that launches `runt mcp`)
│ └── gremlin/ # Stress-testing agent for nteract notebooks (not published)
├── docs/ # User-facing documentation
└── contributing/ # Developer guides
| Tool | Version | Install |
|---|---|---|
| Node.js | 20+ | https://nodejs.org |
| pnpm | 10.12+ | corepack enable |
| Rust | 1.94.0 | https://rustup.rs (version managed by rust-toolchain.toml) |
Linux only: Install GTK/WebKit dev libraries:
sudo apt-get install -y libgtk-3-dev libwebkit2gtk-4.1-dev libxdo-dev \
libssl-dev libayatana-appindicator3-dev librsvg2-devcargo xtask dev| Workflow | Command | Use when |
|---|---|---|
| One-shot setup + dev | cargo xtask dev |
First-time setup plus daemon + app in one command |
| Hot reload | cargo xtask notebook |
Iterating on React UI |
| Standalone Vite | cargo xtask vite |
Multi-window testing (Vite survives window closes) |
| Attach to Vite | cargo xtask notebook --attach |
Connect Tauri to already-running Vite |
| Debug build | cargo xtask build |
Full debug build (frontend + rust) |
| E2E debug build | cargo xtask e2e build |
Debug build with built-in WebDriver server |
| Rust-only build | cargo xtask build --rust-only |
Rebuild rust, reuse existing frontend |
| Run bundled | cargo xtask run notebook.ipynb |
Run standalone binary |
| Lint (check) | cargo xtask lint |
Check formatting and linting across Rust, JS/TS, Python |
| Lint (fix) | cargo xtask lint --fix |
Auto-fix formatting and linting |
| Dev daemon | cargo xtask dev-daemon |
Run per-worktree dev daemon |
| Install nightly (Linux/headless) | cargo xtask install-nightly |
Build + install runtimed + runt + nteract-mcp as the local nightly. Refuses on macOS and when an app bundle is installed. |
| Release .app | cargo xtask build-app |
Testing app bundle locally |
| Release DMG | cargo xtask build-dmg |
Distribution (usually CI) |
| Generate icons | cargo xtask icons [source.png] |
Generate icon variants from source image |
cargo xtask dev runs the first-time bootstrap (pnpm install + cargo xtask build),
starts the per-worktree dev daemon, waits for it to be ready, and then launches the
notebook app. For repeat launches, use cargo xtask dev --skip-install --skip-build.
The UI must be built before Rust because crates/notebook embeds assets from apps/notebook/dist/ via Tauri.
pnpm build # Build notebook UI
cargo test # Run Rust tests
pnpm test:run # Run JS tests
cargo fmt # Format Rust
vp check --fix # Lint + format JS/TS
cargo clippy --all-targets -- -D warnings # Lint RustThe underlying Rust libraries are published to crates.io:
jupyter-protocol— Jupyter messaging protocolruntimelib— Jupyter kernel interactions over ZeroMQnbformat— Notebook parsing
See the contributing/ directory for detailed guides:
- Development workflow — build commands, dev daemon, Zed tasks
- Architecture — runtime principles, daemon, state, sync
- Protocol — wire protocol, magic bytes preamble, version negotiation
- Releasing — versioning scheme, release procedures, tag conventions
- Testing — Vitest, Rust, Python, E2E
BSD-3-Clause