colab-ask 0.1.1

An LLM assistant magic command for Google Colab notebooks.

colab-ask 🪄

Colab-Ask is a magic command that sends your code, outputs, and even generated images (matplotlib, etc.) directly to models like Claude or GPT-4 for context-aware help.

Why use this?

• Context Aware: It sees your text and code cells, and error traces.
• Vision Capable: It can see embedded images and graphs.
• Native Integration: Lives inside Colab. No alt-tabbing to ChatGPT.
• Privacy First: Your data goes straight to the API. No middleman servers.

Prerequisites (Before you start)

1. Google Colab: This extension is designed specifically for the Colab environment.
2. API Keys: You need an API key for your preferred provider (OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, etc.).
   • Click the Key Icon (Secrets) on the left sidebar in Colab.
   • Add a new secret (e.g., ANTHROPIC_API_KEY or OPENAI_API_KEY).
   • Toggle "Notebook access" ON.

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Quick Start

Run this in a cell to install and load the extension:

!pip install colab-ask
%load_ext colab_ask

1. The Basic Ask

Use %%ask to chat about your current notebook state.

%%ask
My training loop is stalling at epoch 5. based on the logs above, why?

2. The Vision Ask

Since colab-ask sees images, you can ask about plots:

# (After generating a matplotlib chart)
%%ask
Look at the plot above. Is the model overfitting?

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Configuration

Change Model: Uses LiteLLM under the hood. Any supported model string works. Check https://docs.litellm.ai/docs/providers

%set_model claude-3-5-sonnet-20241022

Set System Prompt: Want a specific teaching style?

%%set_sys
You are a senior Python engineer. Be concise. 
Focus on performance optimization and vectorized operations.

Privacy & Data

• Direct Communication: Notebook data is sent directly from your browser/runtime to the LLM provider (OpenAI/Anthropic/Google).
• Zero Logs: We do not run a middleware server. We do not store your code.