jupyterlab_notebook_awareness

What it is and what it does

This is a JupyterLab frontend extension that automatically tracks and broadcasts each user's current notebook and active cell to the collaborative awareness state. When you open a notebook or click on a cell, the extension updates two fields—`activeCellId` and `notebookPath`—that are shared with all other connected users, allowing real-time visibility into who is looking at what.

The extension works transparently: awareness state updates automatically when you open a notebook, switch cells, or refresh the page. Other applications or extensions can then query the awareness object to see which notebook and cell each user is currently viewing, enabling features like presence indicators or activity tracking in collaborative environments.

Use it for:

• Show presence indicators in a shared notebook so collaborators know which cells others are actively viewing.
• Log or audit which notebooks and cells users access during a collaborative session.
• Build a user activity dashboard that displays real-time awareness of who is working on which notebook.
• Coordinate focus during pair programming by tracking which cell each developer is currently editing.
• Implement smart notifications that alert users only when activity occurs in cells they are viewing.

Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page — verify before relying

A JupyterLab extension that tracks which notebook and cell each user is currently viewing, adding that awareness data to the collaborative state so other users can see it.

Yes, if you run JupyterLab 4.0.0 or later and need to track user presence across notebooks and cells in a collaborative setting. The extension has low install friction, no external dependencies, and is actively maintained. Install only if you have a specific use case for awareness data; it adds no visible UI on its own but enables other tools to build on it.

Install

jupyterlab-notebook-awareness on PyPI

pip install jupyterlab-notebook-awareness

uv add jupyterlab-notebook-awareness

poetry add jupyterlab-notebook-awareness

Installing jupyterlab_notebook_awareness

Before you install

Low friction: pure Python wheel with no runtime dependencies. Actively maintained with recent releases and a live repository.

License in practice

BSD 3-Clause License permits commercial and private use with minimal restrictions; you must retain copyright notice and license text in distributions.

Quickstart

pip install jupyterlab_notebook_awareness

# Then in JupyterLab, access awareness data:
const awareness = notebook?.model?.sharedModel?.awareness;
const allStates = awareness?.getStates();
const localState = awareness?.getLocalState();

Requires JupyterLab >= 4.0.0; extension is a frontend plugin and runs only within JupyterLab, not standalone.

Verify before relying

• Whether the extension requires JupyterLab 4.0.0 or later to function (stated in description but not in requires_python)
• Whether awareness state persists across page refreshes or is lost on reconnect
• Performance impact when tracking many concurrent users in a single notebook

Package facts

Evidence: jupyterlab_notebook_awareness-0.2.0-py3-none-any.whl

Keywords: jupyter, jupyterlab, jupyterlab-extension

Tags

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Further reading