delete_cell - Jupyter MCP Server

Delete specific cells from the currently activated notebook and return the cell source of deleted cells (if include_source=True).

destructive: yes · idempotent: no · open-world: no

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
`cell_indices`	array \| null	no	`null`	List of cell indices to delete (0-based). Omit when passing cell_ids_to_delete.
`include_source`	boolean	no	`true`	Whether to include the source of deleted cells
`notebook_name`	string \| null	no	`null`	Target this specific connected notebook instead of the currently activated one. Use when multiple clients share this server, to avoid racing the shared 'current notebook' pointer. Omit to use the currently activated notebook.
`cell_ids_to_delete`	array \| null	no	`null`	Address the cells by their notebook cell ids instead of their indices. Safer for a multi-cell delete than indices, which shift as earlier cells go. Given both, the ids win; every id is checked before any cell is deleted, so a bad one fails the whole call rather than half-deleting the notebook.

Output

{
  "properties": {
    "kind": {
      "description": "What this result is — 'cell.read', 'notebooks.list' and so on. Lets a client tell one answer from another without matching prose.",
      "title": "Kind",
      "type": "string"
    },
    "result": {
      "default": null,
      "description": "The answer itself: a message, the rows of a listing, or the outputs of an execution in order.",
      "title": "Result"
    }
  },
  "required": [
    "kind"
  ],
  "type": "object",
  "additionalProperties": true,
  "description": "What every tool of this server answers with.\n\nDeclared so the shape is *advertised* rather than merely produced. A tool\nthat returns structure without saying what it will return leaves a client\nnothing to validate against and the generated reference nothing to show —\nthe call works and the contract is invisible, which is the worst of both.\n\nExtra fields are allowed on purpose. A tool that already answers with a\nmapping keeps its own keys (see :func:`_default_shape`), and those are the\ninteresting part of its answer; forbidding them would mean either\nflattening every tool into one shape or declaring nothing at all.",
  "title": "ToolAnswer"
}

Call it

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 1,
  "method": "tools/call",
  "params": {
    "name": "delete_cell",
    "arguments": {
      "cell_indices": null,
      "include_source": true,
      "notebook_name": null,
      "cell_ids_to_delete": null
    }
  }
}

result = await session.call_tool("delete_cell", arguments={"cell_indices": None, "include_source": True, "notebook_name": None, "cell_ids_to_delete": None})

Source

Registered by the @mcp.tool decorator on delete_cell in jupyter_mcp_server/server.py.