Quick Start
Install Lightcone Lab, open a project and find your way around the workbench.
Lab comes in two installs. The full install adds the features that run on the Jupyter server: agent sessions in Jupyter AI, each result's freshness and provenance, comments, and the report preview. The workbench only runs entirely in the browser, so it also works in a JupyterLab whose environment you can't change, such as a JupyterHub at a computing center. The Workbench tour marks the features that need the full install.
Open or create a project
Browse the file browser into a folder that holds an astra.yaml: the launcher tab becomes the
project's Home. To start a new project, choose New Lightcone project in a launcher outside
any project, or run Create project from the command palette. In the workbench only, this runs
lc init in a terminal, so install the Lightcone CLI
where JupyterLab's terminals can find it. See New and existing projects.
Find your way around
Home shows the project's title page, its results and a link to its pipeline. Open ASTRA opens the inventory of the analysis, and Ctrl/⌘+K searches the project. The Workbench tour covers each feature.
Work with an agent
In the workbench only, the claude and codex buttons on Home start an agent in a terminal, in the project folder. With the full install, the New session box starts a Jupyter AI session instead. Either way, add the Agent Skills plugin so the agent knows how to work on a Lightcone project.
Jupyter AI talks to coding agents through Agent Client Protocol adapters, and none comes with Lab. For each agent you want in Jupyter AI, install the agent and sign in, then install its adapter, which needs Node.js 22 or newer:
Install Claude Code and run claude once to sign in. Then:
npm install -g @agentclientprotocol/claude-agent-acpRestart JupyterLab, and the agent appears in the New session box's agent picker. Agents covers sessions in detail.
Update and uninstall
For the full install:
uv tool upgrade jupyterlabFor the workbench only, use the Extension Manager. Your projects are untouched. The full install
keeps its state inside each project, sessions in chats/ and comments in .lightcone/; delete
those folders if you no longer want them.