Notebook Cell Numbers
Persistent cell numbers, editable titles, and a Table of Contents sidebar for every VS Code notebook.
No more manually counting cells or hunting for the right one — each cell displays its position directly in the status bar, and a sidebar TOC lets you jump anywhere instantly.
Works on VS Code, VSCodium, and Code OSS.
Features
- Persistent cell numbers — shown on every cell, both code and markdown
- Editable cell titles — set a custom label per cell, stored in notebook metadata
- Cell Table of Contents — sidebar panel listing all cells with content hover-preview and peek navigation
- Go to Cell command — jump to any cell by number or title from the command palette
- Universal — works with Jupyter notebooks, interactive windows, and any other VS Code notebook type
- Auto-updating — numbers stay correct when cells are added, removed, or reordered
- Fully configurable — control the format string, starting index, and alignment
Cell Table of Contents
The Cell Table of Contents panel appears in the Explorer sidebar. It lists every cell in the active notebook, lets you hover to preview cell contents, and click to jump directly to that cell.
Commands
| Command |
Description |
Notebook Cell Numbers: Go to Cell... |
Jump to any cell by number or title |
Notebook Cell Numbers: Edit Cell Title |
Set a custom title for the focused cell |
Settings
| Setting |
Default |
Description |
notebookCellNumbers.enabled |
true |
Show or hide cell numbers |
notebookCellNumbers.startFrom |
1 |
Starting number (0 for zero-indexed) |
notebookCellNumbers.format |
Cell {n} |
Label format — {n} is replaced with the cell number |
notebookCellNumbers.alignment |
left |
Position in the status bar: left or right |
| Format string |
Output |
Cell {n} |
Cell 1, Cell 2, Cell 3 |
In [{n}] |
In [1], In [2], In [3] |
#{n} |
#1, #2, #3 |
[{n}] |
[1], [2], [3] |
Installation from source
# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/ostew5/notebook-cell-numbers
cd notebook-cell-numbers
# Install dependencies
npm install
# Compile TypeScript
npm run compile
# Package as .vsix (requires vsce)
npx @vscode/vsce package
# Install in VS Code
# Extensions panel → ⋯ menu → "Install from VSIX…"
How it works
The extension uses VS Code's NotebookCellStatusBarItemProvider API to inject a label into every cell's built-in status bar — no custom renderers, no webviews, no DOM manipulation. Cell titles are stored in notebook metadata so they persist with the file. The TOC panel is a native VS Code tree view that re-renders automatically as the notebook changes.
License
MIT
