Jupyter MCP Server

Jupyter MCP Server allows you to use tools like Goose or Cursor to pair with you in a JupyterLab notebook where the state of your variables, etc is preserved by the JupyterLab Kernel. The fact that state is preserved is the key to this because it allows to to pair with the Agent in a notebook, where for example if a package is not installed it will see the error and install it for you. You as the user can then do some data exploration and then hand off to the agent at any time to pick up where you left off.

Key Features

• 4 Consolidated MCP Tools (reduced from 11):
  • query_notebook - All read-only operations (view source, check server, etc.)
  • modify_notebook_cells - All cell modifications (add, edit, delete cells)
  • execute_notebook_code - All execution operations (run cells, install packages)
  • setup_notebook - Notebook initialization and kernel connection
• Workflow-oriented design optimized for AI agent collaboration
• State preservation across notebook sessions
• Automatic parameter validation with float-to-int conversion

This works with any client that supports MCP but will focus on using Goose for the examples.

Requirements

You will need UV is required to be installed.

Installation

This MCP server uses stdio and can been added to client with the command uvx mcp-jupyter.

Usage

Start Jupyter

The server expects that a server is already running on a port that is available to the client. If the environmental variable TOKEN is not set, it will default to "BLOCK". The server requires that jupyter-collaboration and ipykernel are installed.

Option 1: Using uv venv

# Create virtual environment  
uv venv
source .venv/bin/activate  # On Windows: .venv\Scripts\activate

# Install Jupyter dependencies
uv pip install jupyterlab jupyter-collaboration ipykernel

# Start Jupyter
jupyter lab --port 8888 --IdentityProvider.token BLOCK --ip 0.0.0.0

Option 2: Using uv project

# Initialize project (if you don't have one)
uv init jupyter-workspace && cd jupyter-workspace

# Install Jupyter dependencies
uv add jupyterlab jupyter-collaboration ipykernel

# Start Jupyter
uv run jupyter lab --port 8888 --IdentityProvider.token BLOCK --ip 0.0.0.0

Goose Usage

Here's a demonstration of the tool in action:

!MCP Jupyter Demo

You can view the Generated notebook here: View Demo Notebook

Development

Steps remain similar except you will need to clone this mcp-jupyter repository and use that for the server instead of the precompiled version.

MCP Server

1. Clone and setup the repository:

mkdir ~/Development
cd ~/Development
git clone https://github.com/block/mcp-jupyter.git
cd mcp-jupyter

# Sync all dependencies
uv sync

Using editable mode allows you to make changes to the server and only have you need to restart Goose, etc. goose session --with-extension "uv run --directory $(pwd) mcp-jupyter"