jupyterlite-remote-server 0.1.2

JupyterLite extension to connect to a remote Jupyter server

jupyterlite-remote-server

A JupyterLite extension that connects to a remote Jupyter server for all services (kernels, contents, settings, etc.).

This extension replaces JupyterLite's in-browser service implementations with standard JupyterLab service managers that communicate with a remote Jupyter server. This allows you to run a static JupyterLite frontend while using a real Jupyter server for all backend operations.

How It Works

The extension provides ServiceManagerPlugins that:

1. Disable JupyterLite's in-browser service implementations
2. Provide standard JupyterLab service managers configured to connect to a remote server
3. Read server connection settings dynamically from PageConfig

Configuration

Configure the extension by setting these options in jupyter-lite.json:

Option	Description
remoteBaseUrl	The base URL of the remote Jupyter server (e.g., http://localhost:8888/)
remoteToken	The authentication token for the remote server
appendToken	Whether to append token to WebSocket URLs. If not set, auto-detects based on whether the base URL and WebSocket URL are on the same host

Usage with JupyterLite

1. Start the Jupyter Server

Start a Jupyter server with CORS enabled to allow connections from JupyterLite:

jupyter server --ServerApp.token=my-token --ServerApp.allow_origin='*'

2. Create JupyterLite Configuration

Create a jupyter-lite.json configuration file:

{
  "jupyter-lite-schema-version": 0,
  "jupyter-config-data": {
    "remoteBaseUrl": "http://localhost:8888/",
    "remoteToken": "my-token",
    "disabledExtensions": [
      "@jupyterlite/services-extension:config-section-manager",
      "@jupyterlite/services-extension:default-drive",
      "@jupyterlite/services-extension:event-manager",
      "@jupyterlite/services-extension:exporters",
      "@jupyterlite/services-extension:kernel-manager",
      "@jupyterlite/services-extension:kernel-client",
      "@jupyterlite/services-extension:kernel-spec-client",
      "@jupyterlite/services-extension:kernel-spec-manager",
      "@jupyterlite/services-extension:kernel-specs",
      "@jupyterlite/services-extension:localforage",
      "@jupyterlite/services-extension:nbconvert-manager",
      "@jupyterlite/services-extension:session-manager",
      "@jupyterlite/services-extension:settings",
      "@jupyterlite/services-extension:user-manager",
      "@jupyterlite/services-extension:workspace-manager"
    ]
  }
}

3. Build and Serve JupyterLite

# Install JupyterLite and this extension
pip install jupyterlite-core jupyterlite-remote-server

# Build the JupyterLite site
jupyter lite build

# Serve the built site
cd _output
python -m http.server 8000

Then open http://localhost:8000/lab/ in your browser.

See the demo/ directory for a complete example configuration.

Plugins Provided

This extension provides the following ServiceManagerPlugins:

Plugin	Token	Description
server-settings	IServerSettings	Remote server connection settings
default-drive	IDefaultDrive	Server-connected file drive
contents-manager	IContentsManager	File contents management
kernel-manager	IKernelManager	Kernel lifecycle management
kernel-spec-manager	IKernelSpecManager	Kernel specifications with URL rewriting
session-manager	ISessionManager	Session management
setting-manager	ISettingManager	User settings management
workspace-manager	IWorkspaceManager	Workspace persistence
user-manager	IUserManager	User information
event-manager	IEventManager	Server events
config-section-manager	IConfigSectionManager	Config section management
nbconvert-manager	INbConvertManager	Notebook conversion
terminal-manager	ITerminalManager	Terminal sessions

Requirements

• JupyterLab >= 4.0.0
• A running Jupyter server with CORS enabled

Install

pip install jupyterlite-remote-server

Uninstall

pip uninstall jupyterlite-remote-server

Contributing

Development install

# Clone the repo and change to the directory
git clone https://github.com/jtpio/jupyterlite-remote-server.git
cd jupyterlite-remote-server

# Set up a virtual environment
python -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate

# Install in development mode
pip install --editable "."
jupyter labextension develop . --overwrite

# Rebuild after making changes
jlpm build

Development with watch mode

# Watch the source directory (in one terminal)
jlpm watch

# Run JupyterLab (in another terminal)
jupyter lab

Development uninstall

pip uninstall jupyterlite_remote_server

Then remove the symlink from jupyter labextension list location named jupyterlite-remote-server.

Packaging

See RELEASE