jupyter-rmcp

A self-hosted MCP server that gives Claude — including the mobile app — an interactive Jupyter environment: real kernels, notebooks that persist as .ipynb files you can open yourself, and optional GPU offload to Google Colab. You run it; it runs your notebooks.

It exists because "Claude writes code" and "Claude runs code and iterates on the output" are different things. Every execution lands in a notebook on your own machine, which a human can watch and edit in JupyterLab at the same time.

• Kaggle on a laptop: COLAB_ONLY=1 makes every kernel a Colab VM under your own Google account — nothing executes locally. See docs/GUIDE.md.

• Kaggle from your phone: the same mode fits a free-tier GCE e2-micro (~475 MB of 1 GB used), published to the Claude app through a Cloudflare tunnel — docs/deploy/gce-cloudflare.md, with the account prerequisites in 日本語.

• Reference: DESIGN.md (architecture, session management), docs/AUTH.md (exposing it safely) and docs/IAP-OAUTH.md (the runbook for reaching it from the Claude mobile app), docs/SECURITY.md (threat model), docs/COLAB.md (GPU offload), docs/adr/ (why each choice was made).

What runs

Both bind loopback only. Raw Jupyter — arbitrary code execution with a token — is never the thing you expose; the MCP server is the only surface intended to go anywhere, and only behind auth (docs/AUTH.md).

Related MCP server: Jupyter MCP Server

Quickstart

git clone <this-repo> && cd jupyter-rmcp
bash scripts/install.sh      # generates .env + tokens, builds, starts, health-checks
python scripts/smoke_test.py # exercises the live /mcp endpoint end to end

install.sh is idempotent. Manual equivalent: cp .env.example .env, fill in JUPYTER_TOKEN and MCP_BEARER, then docker compose up -d --build.

Notebooks live in ./data/notebooks (bind-mounted, survive rebuilds) and are served to a human at http://127.0.0.1:7131 (JupyterLab, token from .env).

Connect Claude

Claude Code, on the same machine:

claude mcp add --transport http jupyter-rmcp http://127.0.0.1:7130/mcp \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer $(grep '^MCP_BEARER=' .env | cut -d= -f2)"

The Claude app (including mobile) needs a public HTTPS URL, so it takes a reverse proxy or tunnel in front of port 7130 — plus an authenticating layer, because that URL executes code. docs/AUTH.md covers the options and the one real gotcha: an OAuth-based proxy sets its own Authorization header, which collides with MCP_BEARER and returns 401. Pick one, not both. docs/IAP-OAUTH.md is the step-by-step setup, worked through on Cloudflare Zero Trust.

Colab-only mode

Set COLAB_ONLY=1 in .env and the server refuses to execute code on the local backend entirely: start_kernel defaults to backend="colab", and a local kernel request is rejected. The local Jupyter still stores and serves every notebook — editing, listing and workspace files keep working — it just never runs user code.

This is the mode to use on a work laptop, or anywhere "what exactly can this thing run on my machine?" needs a short answer. It requires working Colab credentials; the server refuses to start without them rather than failing one call at a time. Details in docs/GUIDE.md and ADR 0014.

How you use it

One unified interface for both backends: start_kernel(backend=…, gpu=…, notebook_path=…, if_exists=…) → work in the bound notebook → stop_kernel. backend defaults to local (fast, free) or to colab in colab-only mode; backend="colab" provisions a GPU/CPU Colab VM on demand (official google-colab-cli, ADC auth, no browser tab). Notebooks always live on the server regardless of where the compute is.

• Notebooks are editable documents. start_kernel() with no name → a fresh untitled-N.ipynb; pass an existing name to continue (if_exists: open/new/error). Edit by cell id, not index: list_cells(path) for ids + summaries, then patch_cell(path, old, new, cell_id=…) for cheap unique-substring edits, or edit_cell/insert_cells/move_cell/delete_cell. Pass expected_rev (from notebook_rev) so a human's concurrent Lab edit is never clobbered. Run: execute_code appends and runs ad-hoc code; execute_cell(kernel_id, cell_id=…) re-runs an existing cell in place.

• Workspace files share one work root with the notebooks (persistent, visible to kernels and JupyterLab). Sub-folders auto-create when you write to a sub-path. Bring data in with upload_file(path, base64), fetch_to_workspace(url, path), or JupyterLab's Upload button. To use a workspace file on a Colab kernel, upload_to_colab(kernel_id, path) copies it to the VM's /content; download_from_colab brings a result back.

• Kernel state persists across executions, and across MCP restarts: the kernel registry is on disk, so a rebuild does not lose track of live kernels.

• Long jobs: execute_code(..., background=True) returns a job_id immediately; poll get_job for live stdout/stderr. Prefer that over growing timeout for training runs and big downloads.

• Kaggle: set KAGGLE_API_TOKEN in .env (kaggle.com/settings/api → "Generate New Token"). It stays server-side. Local kernels have it in their env; on a Colab kernel call setup_kaggle(kernel_id) once — it injects the token into the VM without it ever appearing in execution history. Same idea for HuggingFace via setup_hf.

• Housekeeping: execute_code enforces a per-call timeout (EXEC_TIMEOUT_SEC); on timeout the kernel is interrupted and a status: "timeout" result returned. Idle kernels are reaped after KERNEL_IDLE_TIMEOUT_SEC (pin_kernel to exempt), at most MAX_KERNELS at once, and nothing outlives KERNEL_MAX_AGE_SEC.

MCP tools

Kernels and execution: start_kernel, execute_code, get_job, execute_cell, stop_kernel, restart_kernel, interrupt_kernel, pin_kernel, list_kernels, list_variables, list_backends, colab_log, setup_kaggle, setup_hf.

Notebook editing (id-addressed, no execution — design from nbedit-mcp): notebook_rev, list_cells, read_cells, insert_cell/insert_cells, patch_cell, edit_cell, delete_cell, move_cell, create_notebook, list_notebooks.

Workspace files: list_files, create_folder, upload_file, fetch_to_workspace, upload_to_colab, download_from_colab.

Operations

docker compose ps
docker compose logs -f mcp
docker compose restart mcp
docker compose down            # stop everything

Extend the kernel's Python libs by editing jupyter/requirements.txt, then docker compose up -d --build jupyter.

Tests: pytest -q and ruff check . (unit, no network) plus python scripts/smoke_test.py (end-to-end against a running stack). CI runs the first two on every push.

License

MIT — see LICENSE. Bundles the official google-colab-cli (Apache-2.0) for the Colab backend.