jupyterlab-quickopen

Quickly open a file in JupyterLab by typing part of its name

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/77567c89-ad52-4be8-b0e4-612700353242

Compatibility

• Python >=3.10
• JupyterLab >=3.2
• Jupyter Server >=2.4
• Configurations where notebook documents and other files reside on a filesystem local to the Jupyter Server (which is the the default), not remote storage (e.g., S3)

Usage

After installing the extension, you can open the quick open panel by pressing Ctrl Shift P (or Cmd P on macOS). Start typing the name of the file you want to open, and the quick open panel will show a list of files that match the text you've typed.

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/77567c89-ad52-4be8-b0e4-612700353242

The extension also works in Jupyter Notebook 7:

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/49147847-2b98-4016-8a11-5d0e8d9749e1

Install

To install the extension with pip:

pip install jupyterlab-quickopen

With conda / mamba:

conda install -c conda-forge jupyterlab-quickopen

Configure

Using a custom Keyboard Shortcut

The default keyboard shortcut for opening the quickopen panel is Accel Ctrl P.

You can assign your own keyboard shortcut to show the quickopen panel at any time. Open the keyboard editor by clicking Settings → Advanced Settings Editor → Keyboard Shortcuts. Then enter JSON in the User Overrides text area like the following, adjusting the keys value to assign the shortcut of your choosing:

{
  "shortcuts": [
    {
      "command": "quickopen:activate",
      "keys": ["Accel Ctrl P"],
      "selector": "body",
      "title": "Activate Quick Open",
      "category": "Main Area"
    }
  ]
}

Patterns to Exclude

You can control which files to exclude from the quick open list using JupyterLab settings. In Jupyter Server-backed deployments, Jupyter Server settings can also affect which files are listed.

For server-backed deployments, use the ContentsManager.allow_hidden and/or ContentsManager.hide_globs settings. See the documentation about Jupyter Server options for details.

In the JupyterLab web app, open the Settings menu, click the Advanced Settings Editor option, select the Quick Open item in the Raw View sidebar, and enter JSON in the User Overrides text area to override the default values.

Honoring .gitignore

In addition to static exclude patterns, the extension can skip files and directories matched by .gitignore files in the workspace. The feature is opt-in — enable it in the Quick Open settings:

{
  "respectGitignore": true
}

Behavior when enabled:

• Each .gitignore is interpreted relative to the directory it lives in, mirroring git's own semantics (e.g., nested/.gitignore only applies inside nested/).
• The .git directory itself is always skipped (it isn't normally listed in .gitignore).
• Only .gitignore files inside the scanned tree are honored. Global gitignore (~/.config/git/ignore) and .git/info/exclude are not consulted.
• Pattern matching uses pathspec on the server and ignore on the frontend, both implementing gitwildmatch semantics including negation (!pattern) and directory-only patterns (foo/).

The setting works with both indexing modes (configured by indexingMethod, see below), with one caveat:

• Server mode (default): does not need additional server configuration; .gitignore is read directly from disk.
• Frontend mode (usually used in JupyterLite and similar setups): the Contents API must allow listing hidden files, since .gitignore is itself a hidden file. For Jupyter Server-backed Contents API deployments, set ContentsManager.allow_hidden = True in your jupyter_server_config.py (or pass --ContentsManager.allow_hidden=True on the command line). For prebuilt JupyterLite content, configure this at build time in jupyter_lite_config.json as shown below. Without access to hidden files through the Contents API, the frontend cannot see .gitignore files and the option silently has no effect.

[!TIP] The gitignore feature works without showing .gitignore in the file browser. If you'd also like to view or edit your .gitignore from JupyterLab, enable Show Hidden Files from the View menu (or the file browser's overflow menu). This UI setting is separate from allowing hidden files through the Contents API.

JupyterLite

This extension is compatible with JupyterLite when using the client-side indexing mode. Open the Advanced Settings Editor (Settings → Advanced Settings Editor), select the Quick Open settings and set the indexingMethod to "frontend". To honor .gitignore files, also enable respectGitignore.

You can add the following overrides.json file before building your JupyterLite site:

{
  "jupyterlab-quickopen:plugin": {
    "indexingMethod": "frontend",
    "respectGitignore": true
  }
}

If your JupyterLite site ships prebuilt content with .gitignore files, also include hidden files in the generated Contents API responses by adding the following jupyter_lite_config.json before building:

{
  "ContentsManager": {
    "allow_hidden": true
  }
}

This is JupyterLite build configuration, not runtime jupyter_server_config.py configuration. The file browser still hides dotfiles by default; use the Show Hidden Files setting only if you want users to see .gitignore in the file browser.

Development install

Note: You will need NodeJS to build the extension package.

The jlpm command is JupyterLab's pinned version of yarn that is installed with JupyterLab. You may use yarn or npm in lieu of jlpm below.

# Clone the repo to your local environment
# Change directory to the jupyterlab_quickopen directory
# Install package in development mode
pip install -e .
# Link your development version of the extension with JupyterLab
jupyter labextension develop . --overwrite
# Server extension must be manually installed in develop mode
jupyter server extension enable jupyterlab_quickopen
# Rebuild extension Typescript source after making changes
jlpm build

You can watch the source directory and run JupyterLab at the same time in different terminals to watch for changes in the extension's source and automatically rebuild the extension.

# Watch the source directory in one terminal, automatically rebuilding when needed
jlpm watch
# Run JupyterLab in another terminal
jupyter lab

With the watch command running, every saved change will immediately be built locally and available in your running JupyterLab. Refresh JupyterLab to load the change in your browser (you may need to wait several seconds for the extension to be rebuilt).

By default, the jlpm build command generates the source maps for this extension to make it easier to debug using the browser dev tools. To also generate source maps for the JupyterLab core extensions, you can run the following command:

jupyter lab build --minimize=False

Releasing

See RELEASE

Acknowledgements

This extension was originally created by Peter Parente and was later moved to the jupyterlab-contrib GitHub organization.