nteract

nteract is a local-first notebook environment where humans, kernels, and AI agents can work against the same live document. It ships as a native desktop app with instant startup, realtime sync across windows and programmatic clients, and managed local environments.

Built on jupyter-zmq-client and jupyter-protocol.

Install

Download the latest release from GitHub Releases.

Linux x64 and macOS (Apple silicon or Intel) can install with one command — the AppImage or signed .app bundle plus CLI/daemon and the per-user service (systemd or launchd) in one step:

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.nteract.io | bash

macOS users can equally drag the DMG from GitHub Releases. DEB/RPM/APT installs are not currently supported because runtimed is a per-user daemon managed by the app and CLI, not by system package-manager scripts.

For remote workstations (Outerbounds, JupyterHub) that offer compute to hosted notebooks, use the headless one-liner — see Remote workstations [blocked]:

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.nteract.io | bash -s -- --headless

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.

What's in here

Runtime model

nteract stores notebook content in an Automerge-backed document and keeps live kernel state in an explicit runtime state document. The daemon owns kernel processes, execution queues, output capture, and the write path for execution results.

Execution requests name a synced cell_id; the daemon reads the cell source from the shared document, records queue and status changes in runtime state, and writes outputs through the same model. The desktop app, CLI, MCP server, and agent clients use that path, so programmatic control observes the same notebook state a human is editing.

MCP Server

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.

Install the Codex plugin

codex plugin marketplace add nteract/agent-plugins

Restart Codex, then open the plugin directory, choose the nteract marketplace, and install nteract.

The distribution repository also includes a nightly plugin entry for pre-release builds.

If Codex still does not show notebook tools after restarting, refresh the marketplace and reinstall the selected plugin:

codex plugin marketplace upgrade nteract-pluginscodex plugin remove nteract@nteract-plugins      # or nightly@nteract-pluginscodex plugin add nteract@nteract-plugins         # or nightly@nteract-pluginscodex mcp list

Start a new Codex session after reinstalling; running sessions do not hot-load newly installed MCP tools.

Install the Claude Code plugin

/plugin marketplace add nteract/agent-plugins/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/agent-plugins always points at the latest stable release.

For pre-release builds (updated daily):

/plugin install nightly@nteract

Install in Claude Desktop

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.

Usage

# Open a notebookrunt notebook path/to/notebook.ipynb
# MCP server for notebook automationrunt mcp
# Daemon managementrunt daemon statusrunt daemon logs -f

List 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     │╰──────────────────────────────────────┴────────┴──────────────┴────────┴───────╯

Project structure

nteract/nteract├── 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/          # Desktop notebook Tauri app│   ├── notebook-cloud/    # Hosted notebook worker (Cloudflare)│   ├── elements/          # Elements design system catalog│   ├── mcp-app/           # MCP widget dev app│   └── renderer-test/     # Isolated renderer test harness├── packages/               # Shared npm packages│   ├── notebook-host/     # Notebook host shell│   ├── runtimed/          # Node/NAPI daemon client│   ├── runtimed-node/     # Node bindings for daemon│   ├── sift/              # Sift visualization renderer│   └── odometer/          # Odometer component├── crates/                 # Rust code│   ├── runt/              # CLI binary│   ├── runtimed/          # Background daemon│   ├── runtimed-py/       # Python bindings for the daemon│   ├── runtimed-wasm/     # WASM Automerge bindings for frontend│   ├── notebook/          # Notebook Tauri app crate│   ├── notebook-doc/      # Automerge document operations│   ├── 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│   ├── runt-trust/        # Notebook trust extraction│   ├── runt-workspace/    # Workspace detection utilities│   ├── runtimed-client/   # Shared client library for daemon│   ├── repr-llm/          # LLM-friendly text summaries of visualizations│   ├── xtask/             # Build automation tasks│   └── mcp-supervisor/    # nteract-dev MCP server (proxies runt mcp + dev tools)├── python/                 # Python workspace (uv)│   ├── runtimed/          # PyPI: runtimed (Python bindings)│   ├── nteract/           # PyPI: nteract (thin launcher for `runt mcp`)│   ├── gremlin/           # Stress-testing agent│   ├── prewarm/           # Environment prewarm script│   ├── dx/                # Developer utilities│   ├── nteract-kernel-launcher/ # Kernel launcher for hosted notebooks│   └── safari-timeline/   # Safari timeline parser├── plugins/                # Agent plugin distribution│   └── nteract/           # Codex plugin package

Development

Prerequisites

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-dev

Quick start

cargo xtask dev

Development workflows

cargo xtask dev installs dependencies, ensures generated artifacts, starts the per-worktree dev daemon, waits for it to be ready, and then launches the notebook app with hot reload. It stops the daemon it started when the app exits. For repeat launches, use cargo xtask dev --skip-install --skip-build.

On macOS, every worktree gets a cached app wrapper with a distinct name and bundle identifier, such as nteract Dev f0f9d9 and org.nteract.desktop.dev.f0f9d99b161f. This keeps unsigned source builds separate from installed stable and Nightly apps without changing release packaging or claiming .ipynb file associations. Use cargo xtask dev status to obtain the live automation PID. Accessibility scripts should select the System Events process by that PID instead of asking LaunchServices for an app named nteract:

set devPid to 12345 -- copy Automation PID from `cargo xtask dev status`tell application "System Events"  tell first application process whose unix id is devPid    -- perform UI automation here  end tellend tell

Frontend edits continue through Vite hot reload. After changes to Tauri bootstrap or event-listener setup, use cargo xtask dev --fresh to terminate only this worktree's exact app process, stop its daemon, and relaunch both cleanly. The equivalent manual sequence is cargo xtask dev reset followed by cargo xtask dev.

Build order

The UI must be built before Rust because crates/notebook embeds assets from apps/notebook/dist/ via Tauri.

Common commands

pnpm build                          # Build notebook UIcargo test                          # Run Rust testspnpm test:run                       # Run JS testscargo xtask artifacts status         # Check generated artifact readinesscargo xtask artifacts ensure runtime # Rebuild only runtimed-wasm when neededcargo fmt                           # Format Rustvp check --fix                      # Lint + format JS/TScargo clippy --all-targets -- -D warnings               # Lint Rust

Library crates

The underlying Rust libraries are published to crates.io:

• jupyter-protocol — Jupyter messaging protocol
• jupyter-zmq-client - Jupyter kernel interactions over ZeroMQ
• nbformat — Notebook parsing

Contributing

See AGENTS.md for the subsystem map and development guidance. Key entry points:

• crates/runtimed/AGENTS.md — architecture, daemon, state ownership
• apps/notebook/src/AGENTS.md — frontend architecture
• crates/notebook-wire/AGENTS.md — wire protocol
• cargo xtask help — all build commands

License

BSD-3-Clause