---
id: jupyter-ydoc
version: "4.1.1"
license: BSD 3-Clause License
license_treatment: permissive
maintenance: active
---

# jupyter-ydoc — Document structures for collaborative editing using Ypy

License: permissive · Maintenance: active · Downloads: 1.6M/mo

## What it is and what it does

jupyter_ydoc wraps pycrdt's conflict-free replicated data types (CRDTs) into document classes tailored for the Jupyter ecosystem. It provides three built-in document types: YNotebook for notebook files, YUnicode for text documents, and YBlob for binary data. Each is designed to support collaborative real-time editing where changes from multiple users merge automatically without conflicts.

The package uses an entry-point system to make documents discoverable and extensible. You can load the built-in documents directly or register your own custom document types via pyproject.toml configuration. This design allows Jupyter applications and extensions to work with collaborative documents in a pluggable way, without hard-coding specific document implementations.

Use it for:

- Enable real-time collaborative notebook editing in JupyterHub or JupyterLab with automatic conflict resolution.
- Build custom collaborative text editors for Jupyter that sync changes across multiple users without manual merging.
- Create Jupyter extensions that need to store and synchronize binary data structures across collaborative sessions.
- Implement custom document types for domain-specific Jupyter workflows by registering them via the jupyter_ydoc entry point.

## Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts above — verify before relying.

Provides pycrdt-based collaborative data structures for Jupyter documents, including notebooks, text files, and binary blobs, enabling real-time synchronized editing.

Yes, if you are building or extending Jupyter for collaborative use. The package is actively maintained, has low installation friction, and provides a clean abstraction over CRDTs for Jupyter's document types. It is a foundational dependency for collaborative Jupyter features rather than a standalone tool, so install it only if your project explicitly needs real-time document synchronization.

## Install

pip install jupyter-ydoc
uv add jupyter-ydoc
poetry add jupyter-ydoc

## Installing jupyter-ydoc

Before you install: Low friction installation with only two runtime dependencies (anyio and pycrdt). Active maintenance with a recent release 39 days ago and current repository activity.

License in practice: BSD 3-Clause License permits commercial and private use with minimal restrictions; suitable for most projects.

Quickstart:

pip install jupyter-ydoc

from jupyter_ydoc import YNotebook, YUnicode, YBlob

notebook = YNotebook()
text_doc = YUnicode()
blob_doc = YBlob()

Requires Python 3.10 or later.

Verify before relying:

- Whether these document structures integrate seamlessly with existing Jupyter server infrastructure without additional configuration.
- Performance characteristics when handling large notebooks or concurrent edits from many users.
- Whether custom document types registered via entry points work reliably in production Jupyter deployments.

## Package facts

- License: BSD 3-Clause License (permissive)
- Python support: supports_current
- Install friction: low
- Maintenance: active
- Downloads: 1.6M/month (top 5,000 on PyPI)
- Known vulnerabilities: none known

## Tags

jupyter collaborative editing, yjs document structures, pycrdt notebook sync, jupyter real-time collaboration, crdt-based documents, jupyter ydoc structures, collaborative text editing jupyter, collaborative-editing, crdt, jupyter-ecosystem

[View on SkillFed](https://skillfed.io/packages/jupyter-ydoc) · [View on PyPI](https://pypi.org/project/jupyter-ydoc/)