How can I start a Jupyter server from Python

[mrocklin]

I have an existing Python process running a Tornado web application (Dask) and I would like to run a Jupyter notebook server from within this process, on the same event loop. I looked around and couldn't find any good documentation on how to start Jupyter from within Python. Is this easy?

Ideally I would do something like the following:

from notebook import Server

io_loop = tornado.ioloop.IOLoop.current()

server = Server(io_loop=io_loop)
await server.start()

[bollwyvl]

Very close! from notebook.notebookapp import NotebookApp app = NotebookApp() app.initialize([]) Square brackets are the command line arguments. Might want to set port and token, if you actually want to talk to it. I've never given it a custom io_loop, though... Probably have to overload .start, as it always use the current one. More: https://gist.github.com/bollwyvl/bd56b58ba0a078534272043327c52bd1

…

On Tue, Sep 10, 2019, 13:27 Matthew Rocklin ***@***.***> wrote: I have an existing Python process running a Tornado web application (Dask) and I would like to run a Jupyter notebook server from within this process, on the same event loop. I looked around and couldn't find any good documentation on how to start Jupyter from within Python. Is this easy? Ideally I would do something like the following: from notebook import Server io_loop = tornado.ioloop.IOLoop.current() server = Server(io_loop=io_loop)await server.start() — You are receiving this because you are subscribed to this thread. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#4873?email_source=notifications&email_token=AAALCRHIHL3ZSSM5VAMXR5DQI7KJTA5CNFSM4IVKQCT2YY3PNVWWK3TUL52HS4DFUVEXG43VMWVGG33NNVSW45C7NFSM4HKQKPZA>, or mute the thread <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AAALCRCWQ7HVOUGTH3PYDWDQI7KJTANCNFSM4IVKQCTQ> .

[mrocklin]

That works! Nice.

OK, so if providing an event loop is hard, I imagine that it's also quite hard to provide my own, already running Tornado HTTPServer. True? It would be interesting to have only one of these running, assuming that Dask and Jupyter don't have any overlapping routes.

[bollwyvl]

I think one could...

• ... overload NotebookApp.init_webapp to inject an existing http_server...
  • init_webapp could be broken up to not conflate the initialization of NotebookApp.web_app and NotebookApp.http_server (which pretty much just owns the port and the SSL)
    • but the relationship has been 1:1 to date, as far as i can tell
• ... and teach the originally-launched Application.__call__ how to (sometimes) dispatch to this new NotebookApp.__call__ (which i've never seen overload, but...)
  • ... or use the not-exactly-newfangled callable adapter to multiplex
  • ... or somehow bolt them all together with inheritance
    • do you have a web.Application subclass someplace?

i've usually been interested in taking the already-running, somewhat idiosyncratic notebook tornado loop/server/app to run other things in process so i can muck about with their workings in response to yet other things (usually, kernels, contents, and nb/lab extension-interfacing REST APIs). I must confess, dask has not been one of them, preferring to leave it on the other side of the proxy :P

[mrocklin]

It's always better to keep out the riff raff :)

…

On Tue, Sep 10, 2019, 5:35 PM Nicholas Bollweg ***@***.***> wrote: I think one could... - ... overload NotebookApp.init_webapp <https://github.com/jupyter/notebook/blob/6.0.1/notebook/notebookapp.py#L1434> to inject an existing http_server... - init_webapp could be broken up to not conflate the initialization of NotebookApp.web_app and NotebookApp.http_server (which pretty much just owns the port and the SSL) - but the relationship has been 1:1 to date, as far as i can tell - ... and teach the originally-launched Application.__call__ <https://github.com/tornadoweb/tornado/blob/v6.0.3/tornado/web.py#L2164> how to (sometimes) dispatch to this new NotebookApp.__call__ (which i've never seen overload, but...) - ... or use the not-exactly-newfangled <tornadoweb/tornado#1806> callable adapter <https://github.com/tornadoweb/tornado/blob/v6.0.3/tornado/httpserver.py#L237> to multiplex - ... or somehow bolt them all together with inheritance - do you have a web.Application subclass someplace? i've usually been interested in taking the already-running, somewhat idiosyncratic <https://github.com/jupyter/notebook/blob/6.0.1/notebook/notebookapp.py#L47> notebook tornado loop/server/app to run other things in process so i can muck about with their workings in response to yet other things (usually, kernels, contents, and nb/lab extension-interfacing REST APIs). I must confess, dask has not been one of them, preferring to leave it on the other side of the proxy :P — You are receiving this because you authored the thread. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#4873?email_source=notifications&email_token=AACKZTCZ7UZGCVYBFCN7JVTQJA4M7A5CNFSM4IVKQCT2YY3PNVWWK3TUL52HS4DFVREXG43VMVBW63LNMVXHJKTDN5WW2ZLOORPWSZGOD6M4LVI#issuecomment-530171349>, or mute the thread <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AACKZTGQPSRQFBQPSUZN4MTQJA4M7ANCNFSM4IVKQCTQ> .

[oxbits]

In [1]: from notebook.notebookapp import NotebookApp
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
ModuleNotFoundError                       Traceback (most recent call last)
Cell In[1], line 1
----> 1 from notebook.notebookapp import NotebookApp

ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'notebook.notebookapp'

how do we do this today in 2025 ?

[oxbits]

found JupyterNotebookApp, looked promising, but no dice ....

In [2]: from notebook.app import JupyterNotebookApp

In [3]: app = JupyterNotebookApp()

In [4]: app.initialize([])
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
AttributeError                            Traceback (most recent call last)
Cell In[4], line 1
----> 1 app.initialize([])

File ~/_ws/_hax/djsci_hackz/env/lib/python3.13/site-packages/notebook/app.py:362, in JupyterNotebookApp.initialize(self, argv)
    360 def initialize(self, argv: list[str] | None = None) -> None:  # noqa: ARG002
    361     """Subclass because the ExtensionApp.initialize() method does not take arguments"""
--> 362     super().initialize()

File ~/_ws/_hax/djsci_hackz/env/lib/python3.13/site-packages/jupyter_server/extension/application.py:436, in ExtensionApp.initialize(self)
    434 self._prepare_config()
    435 self._prepare_templates()
--> 436 self._prepare_settings()
    437 self._prepare_handlers()

File ~/_ws/_hax/djsci_hackz/env/lib/python3.13/site-packages/jupyter_server/extension/application.py:304, in ExtensionApp._prepare_settings(self)
    302 # Make webapp settings accessible to initialize_settings method
    303 assert self.serverapp is not None
--> 304 webapp = self.serverapp.web_app
    305 self.settings.update(**webapp.settings)
    307 # Add static and template paths to settings.

AttributeError: 'ServerApp' object has no attribute 'web_app'

[bronlib]

The latest version has made it very easy to launch jupyter notebook from a python module:

  from notebook.app import main
  main()