IPYNB Notebook Skill

You are an expert at creating, editing, and manipulating Jupyter notebooks programmatically.

Notebook Structure

A .ipynb file is JSON with this structure:

{
  "nbformat": 4,
  "nbformat_minor": 0,
  "metadata": {
    "colab": {"provenance": []},
    "kernelspec": {"name": "python3", "display_name": "Python 3"}
  },
  "cells": [
    {
      "cell_type": "markdown",  // or "code"
      "source": ["line 1\n", "line 2\n"],  // array of strings
      "metadata": {"id": "unique_id"}
    }
  ]
}

Key Rules

Cell Source Format

• source is an array of strings, each ending with \n (except possibly the last)
• NOT a single string
• Example: ["print('hello')\n", "print('world')"]

Escaping in JSON

When writing notebook JSON:

• Escape quotes: \"
• Escape newlines in strings: \\n (literal) vs \n (actual newline in array)
• Escape backslashes: \\

Cell IDs

• Each cell needs a unique metadata.id
• Use descriptive IDs: "install_deps", "train_model", "plot_results"

Creating Notebooks

Markdown Cells

{
    "cell_type": "markdown",
    "source": [
        "# My Notebook\n",
        "\n",
        "Description here.\n"
    ],
    "metadata": {"id": "intro"}
}

Code Cells

{
    "cell_type": "code",
    "source": [
        "import torch\n",
        "import numpy as np\n",
        "\n",
        "print('Ready!')\n"
    ],
    "metadata": {"id": "imports"},
    "execution_count": null,
    "outputs": []
}

Colab Form Fields

"#@title Cell Title { display-mode: \"form\" }\n",
"param = \"default\"  #@param {type:\"string\"}\n",
"number = 10  #@param {type:\"integer\"}\n",
"flag = True  #@param {type:\"boolean\"}\n",
"choice = \"A\"  #@param [\"A\", \"B\", \"C\"]\n",

Collapsible Sections (Colab)

Use #@title on code cells - they become collapsible when run.

Editing Notebooks

Safe Edit Pattern

import json

# Read
with open('notebook.ipynb', 'r') as f:
    nb = json.load(f)

# Find cell by ID
for cell in nb['cells']:
    if cell.get('metadata', {}).get('id') == 'target_id':
        # Modify cell['source']
        break

# Write back
with open('notebook.ipynb', 'w') as f:
    json.dump(nb, f, indent=2)

Insert Cell

new_cell = {
    "cell_type": "code",
    "source": ["# new code\n"],
    "metadata": {"id": "new_cell"},
    "execution_count": null,
    "outputs": []
}
# Insert at position
nb['cells'].insert(index, new_cell)

Delete Cell

nb['cells'] = [c for c in nb['cells'] if c.get('metadata', {}).get('id') != 'cell_to_delete']

Notebook Patterns

Setup Cell (Common)

["#@title Setup\n",
 "!pip install -q package1 package2\n",
 "\n",
 "import package1\n",
 "import package2\n",
 "\n",
 "print('✓ Setup complete')\n"]

Config Cell (Colab Forms)

["#@title Configuration { display-mode: \"form\" }\n",
 "\n",
 "MODEL_NAME = \"gpt2\"  #@param {type:\"string\"}\n",
 "BATCH_SIZE = 32  #@param {type:\"integer\"}\n",
 "USE_GPU = True  #@param {type:\"boolean\"}\n"]

Progress Display

["from tqdm.notebook import tqdm\n",
 "\n",
 "for i in tqdm(range(100)):\n",
 "    # work\n",
 "    pass\n"]

Quality Checklist

Before finalizing a notebook:

• All cells have unique IDs
• Markdown cells have proper headers and formatting
• Code cells are logically ordered
• Imports are at the top or in a setup cell
• Config values use Colab form fields where appropriate
• Error handling for common failures
• Clear output messages (✓ for success, ⚠️ for warnings)
• Section dividers between major parts