nbdev 3.0.12
Create delightful software with Jupyter Notebooks
License: Apache-2.0
Requires Python: >=3.9
Keywords: nbdev, fastai, jupyter, notebook, export

# Getting Started


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![CI](https://github.com/fastai/nbdev/actions/workflows/test.yaml/badge.svg)

## 🛑**Jan 2026 Major Version Update – Breaking Change**🛑

**nbdev3 is here!** As many of you have been requesting, configuration
has moved from `settings.ini` to `pyproject.toml`, following modern
Python packaging standards ([PEP
621](https://peps.python.org/pep-0621/)). Your project metadata now
lives in the standard `[project]` section, while nbdev-specific settings
go in `[tool.nbdev]`.

**Migrating from nbdev2:** Run `nbdev-migrate-config` in your project
root to automatically convert your `settings.ini` to `pyproject.toml`
and update your GitHub Actions workflows to use nbdev3-compatible
versions. Your existing notebooks and code don’t need any changes.

`nbdev` is a notebook-driven development platform. Simply write
notebooks with lightweight markup and get high-quality documentation,
tests, continuous integration, and packaging for free!

`nbdev` makes debugging and refactoring your code much easier than in
traditional programming environments since you always have live objects
at your fingertips. `nbdev` also promotes software engineering best
practices because tests and documentation are first class.

- **Documentation** is automatically generated using
  [Quarto](https://quarto.org/) and hosted on [GitHub
  Pages](https://pages.github.com/). Docs support LaTeX, are searchable,
  and are automatically hyperlinked (including out-of-the-box support
  for many packages via
  [`nbdev-index`](https://github.com/fastai/nbdev-index))
- **Publish packages to PyPI and conda** as well as tools to simplify
  package releases. Python best practices are automatically followed,
  for example, only exported objects are included in `__all__`
- **Two-way sync between notebooks and plaintext source code** allowing
  you to use your IDE for code navigation or quick edits. Sync is
  robust: each exported cell is tagged with its unique notebook cell ID,
  so `nbdev-update` always updates the correct cell
- **Tests** written as ordinary notebook cells are run in parallel with
  a single command
- **Continuous integration** out-of-the-box with [GitHub
  Actions](https://github.com/features/actions) that run your tests and
  rebuild your docs
- **Git-friendly notebooks** with [Jupyter/Git
  hooks](https://nbdev.fast.ai/tutorials/git_friendly_jupyter.html) that
  clean unwanted metadata and render merge conflicts in a human-readable
  format
- … and much more!

## Install

nbdev works on macOS, Linux, and most Unix-style operating systems. It
works on Windows under WSL, but not under cmd or Powershell.

You can install nbdev with pip:

``` sh
pip install nbdev
```

Note that `nbdev` must be installed into the same Python environment
that you use for both Jupyter and your project.

## How to use nbdev

The best way to learn how to use nbdev is to complete either the
[written walkthrough](https://nbdev.fast.ai/tutorials/tutorial.html) or
video walkthrough:

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7zS8Ld4_iA" target="_blank"
title="nbdev walkthrough"><img
src="https://github.com/fastai/logos/raw/main/nbdev_walkthrough.png"
style="border-radius: 10px" width="560" height="315" /></a>

Alternatively, there’s a [shortened version of the video
walkthrough](https://youtu.be/67FdzLSt4aA) with coding sections sped up
using the `unsilence` Python library – it’s 27 minutes faster, but a bit
harder to follow.

You can also run `nbdev-help` from the terminal to see the full list of
available commands:

``` python
!nbdev-help
```

    nb-export                 Export a single nbdev notebook to a python script.
    nbdev-bump-version        Increment version in __init__.py by one
    nbdev-changelog           Create a CHANGELOG.md file from closed and labeled GitHub issues
    nbdev-clean               Clean all notebooks in `fname` to avoid merge conflicts
    nbdev-conda               Create a `meta.yaml` file ready to be built into a package, and optionally build and upload it
    nbdev-contributing        Create CONTRIBUTING.md from contributing_nb (defaults to 'contributing.ipynb' if present). Skips if the file doesn't exist.
    nbdev-create-config       Create a pyproject.toml config file.
    nbdev-docs                Create Quarto docs and README.md
    nbdev-export              Export notebooks in `path` to Python modules
    nbdev-filter              A notebook filter for Quarto
    nbdev-fix                 Create working notebook from conflicted notebook `nbname`
    nbdev-help                Show help for all console scripts
    nbdev-install             Install Quarto and the current library
    nbdev-install-hooks       Install Jupyter and git hooks to automatically clean, trust, and fix merge conflicts in notebooks
    nbdev-install-quarto      Install latest Quarto on macOS or Linux, prints instructions for Windows
    nbdev-merge               Git merge driver for notebooks
    nbdev-migrate             Convert all markdown and notebook files in `path` from v1 to v2
    nbdev-migrate-config      Migrate settings.ini to pyproject.toml
    nbdev-new                 Create an nbdev project.
    nbdev-prepare             Export, test, and clean notebooks, and render README if needed
    nbdev-preview             Preview docs locally
    nbdev-proc-nbs            Process notebooks in `path` for docs rendering
    nbdev-pypi                Create and upload Python package to PyPI
    nbdev-readme              Create README.md from readme_nb (index.ipynb by default)
    nbdev-release-both        Release both conda and PyPI packages
    nbdev-release-gh          Calls `nbdev_changelog`, lets you edit the result, then pushes to git and calls `nbdev_release_git`
    nbdev-release-git         Tag and create a release in GitHub for the current version
    nbdev-requirements        Writes a `requirements.txt` file to `directory` based on pyproject.toml.
    nbdev-sidebar             Create sidebar.yml
    nbdev-test                Test in parallel notebooks matching `path`, passing along `flags`
    nbdev-trust               Trust notebooks matching `fname`.
    nbdev-update              Propagate change in modules matching `fname` to notebooks that created them
    nbdev-update-license      Allows you to update the license of your project.
    watch-export              Use `nb_export` on ipynb files in `nbs` directory on changes using nbdev config if available

## FAQ

### Q: What is the warning “Found a cell containing mix of imports and computations. Please use separate cells”?

A: You should not have cells that are not exported, *and* contain a mix
of `import` statements along with other code. For instance, don’t do
this in a single cell:

``` python
import some_module
some_module.something()
```

Instead, split this into two cells, one which does `import some_module`,
and the other which does `some_module.something()`.

The reason for this is that when we create your documentation website,
we ensure that all of the signatures for functions you document are up
to date, by running the imports, exported cells, and
[`show_doc`](https://nbdev.fast.ai/api/showdoc.html#show_doc) functions
in your notebooks. When you mix imports with other code, that other code
will be run too, which can cause errors (or at least slowdowns) when
creating your website.

### Q: Why is nbdev asking for root access? How do I install Quarto without root access?

A: When you setup your first project, nbdev will attempt to
automatically download and install [Quarto](https://quarto.org/) for
you. This is the program that we use to create your documentation
website.

Quarto’s standard installation process requires root access, and nbdev
will therefore ask for your root password during installation. For most
people, this will work fine and everything will be handled automatically
– if so, you can skip over the rest of this section, which talks about
installing without root access.

If you need to install Quarto without root access on Linux, first `cd`
to wherever you want to store it, then [download
Quarto](https://quarto.org/docs/get-started/), and type:

``` bash
dpkg -x quarto*.deb .
mv opt/quarto ./
rmdir opt
mkdir -p ~/.local/bin
ln -s "$(pwd)"/quarto/bin/quarto ~/.local/bin
```

To use this non-root version of Quarto, you’ll need `~/.local/bin` in
your [`PATH` environment
variable](https://linuxize.com/post/how-to-add-directory-to-path-in-linux/).
(Alternatively, change the `ln -s` step to place the symlink somewhere
else in your path.)

### Q: Someone told me not to use notebooks for “serious” software development!

A: [Watch this video](https://youtu.be/9Q6sLbz37gk). Don’t worry, we
still get this too, despite having used `nbdev` for a wide range of
“very serious” software projects over the last three years, including
[deep learning libraries](https://github.com/fastai/fastai), [API
clients](https://github.com/fastai/ghapi), [Python language
extensions](https://github.com/fastai/fastcore), [terminal user
interfaces](https://github.com/nat/ghtop), and more!

## Contributing

If you want to contribute to `nbdev`, be sure to review the
[contributions
guidelines](https://github.com/fastai/nbdev/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md).
This project adheres to fastai’s [code of
conduct](https://github.com/fastai/nbdev/blob/master/CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md).
By participating, you are expected to uphold this code. In general, we
strive to abide by generally accepted best practices in open-source
software development.

Make sure you have `nbdev`’s git hooks installed by running
`nbdev-install-hooks` in the cloned repository.

## Copyright

Copyright © 2019 onward fast.ai, Inc. Licensed under the Apache License,
Version 2.0 (the “License”); you may not use this project’s files except
in compliance with the License. A copy of the License is provided in the
LICENSE file in this repository.