read_cell - Jupyter MCP Server

Read a cell as readable text entries.

Includes metadata and source, plus optional formatted output text rather than raw nbformat objects.

read-only: yes · idempotent: yes · open-world: no

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
`cell_index`	integer \| null	no	`null`	Index of the cell to read (0-based). Omit when passing cell_id.
`include_outputs`	boolean	no	`true`	Include outputs in the response (only for code 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_id`	string \| null	no	`null`	Address the cell by its notebook cell id instead of its index. An index is a position, and a position stops being true the moment anyone inserts a cell above it; an id does not. Every result says which id it acted on, so read a cell once and address it by id afterwards. Given both, the id wins.

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"
    },
    "outputs": {
      "description": "The outputs in order: text as text, an image as its own object.",
      "items": {},
      "title": "Outputs",
      "type": "array"
    },
    "count": {
      "default": 0,
      "description": "How many outputs.",
      "title": "Count",
      "type": "integer"
    },
    "images": {
      "default": 0,
      "description": "How many of them are images.",
      "title": "Images",
      "type": "integer"
    }
  },
  "required": [
    "kind"
  ],
  "type": "object",
  "additionalProperties": true,
  "description": "Cell or execution outputs, in order.",
  "title": "OutputsAnswer"
}

Call it

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 1,
  "method": "tools/call",
  "params": {
    "name": "read_cell",
    "arguments": {
      "cell_index": null,
      "include_outputs": true,
      "notebook_name": null,
      "cell_id": null
    }
  }
}

result = await session.call_tool("read_cell", arguments={"cell_index": None, "include_outputs": True, "notebook_name": None, "cell_id": None})

Source

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