Nodebook for VS Code

Interactive JavaScript notebook extension — edit and run .nb and .nodebook files directly in VS Code, powered by @compugit/nodebook.

Requirements

The extension requires the Nodebook server to be installed globally:

npm install -g @compugit/nodebook

The extension will prompt you to install it automatically on first activation.

Features

JavaScript cells — run JS with shared state across cells (like Jupyter)
React / JSX cells — write JSX and see the component rendered inline
Markdown cells — rich text documentation between code
Persistent kernel — variables defined in one cell are available in the next
Streaming output — stdout, stderr, and errors stream back in real time
Native VS Code notebook UI — full Monaco editor, Shift+Enter to run, cell reordering

Getting Started

Install @compugit/nodebook globally (see above)
Install this extension
Open or create a .nb / .nodebook file
VS Code will automatically start the Nodebook server and connect

Commands

Command	Description
`Nodebook: Start Server`	Start the backend server on port 4321
`Nodebook: Stop Server`	Stop the server
`Nodebook: Restart Kernel`	Reset the kernel and clear all variable state

File Format

Notebook files are plain JSON — human-readable and git-friendly:

{
  "metadata": { "name": "My Notebook" },
  "nbformat": 1,
  "cells": [
    {
      "cell_type": "code",
      "source": "console.log('Hello!')",
      "outputs": []
    }
  ]
}

Architecture

The extension is a thin bridge — it connects to the Nodebook server over WebSocket (ws://localhost:4321) and routes cell executions through it. The same server also powers the web client, so both interfaces share the same kernel.

VS Code Extension
  └── WebSocket ──► nodebook server (port 4321) ──► Node.js VM kernel

Nodebook

CompuGit