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Quick Start: Hosted Review Workspace Beta

Use this path if your DS/ML team wants a richer notebook review surface than a PR comment can provide.

NotebookLens v0.4.0-beta adds a separate hosted review workspace that opens from a dedicated GitHub check run. This path is still beta.

The hosted workspace is a separate product surface from the OSS Action:

  • the OSS Action owns the sticky PR comment
  • the hosted workspace beta owns the NotebookLens Review Workspace check run
  • both can exist on the same pull request

If you want the fastest first install inside GitHub, use quickstart-action.md first.

What you get

In the current v0.4.0-beta hosted workspace, reviewers can use:

  • notebook-aware diffs
  • snapshot history across pull request pushes
  • inline thread create, reply, resolve, and reopen flows
  • one-way GitHub PR sync for hosted thread activity
  • installation-scoped LiteLLM settings for managed review
  • a supported Docker Compose self-hosting path for internal pilots

Want to preview the hosted flow before setup? Use examples.md.

Team quick start

This is the shortest evaluator flow for a DS/ML team:

  1. Install the NotebookLens GitHub App on the repositories you want to review.
  2. Sign in to NotebookLens with GitHub OAuth.
  3. Open or update a pull request with .ipynb changes.
  4. Open the NotebookLens Review Workspace check run.
  5. Review the latest snapshot, then create or reply to inline threads in the hosted UI.

What reviewers should see:

  • a dedicated NotebookLens Review Workspace check run on the pull request
  • an Open in NotebookLens link
  • latest snapshot status and thread counts
  • hosted snapshot history and inline thread controls once the workspace opens

What stays beta in v0.4.0-beta

This beta does not add:

  • commit-only review
  • standalone notebook conversations outside pull requests
  • Helm or Kubernetes packaging
  • bidirectional GitHub sync back into NotebookLens
  • per-repo AI overrides

Operator and admin paths

If your team wants to run the hosted workspace itself or configure managed review, use these docs:

NotebookLens currently supports one managed deployment path for internal pilots:

  • Docker Compose on a single host
  • GitHub.com and GitHub Enterprise Server (3.20.0+)
  • one shared public origin through APP_BASE_URL

Recommended operator order:

  1. Deploy with self-hosting.md
  2. Configure managed AI with admin-ai-settings.md if needed
  3. Review GitHub mirror behavior with github-pr-sync.md

Privacy and storage

The hosted workspace beta keeps the UI responsive by storing versioned normalized review snapshots for 90 days by default.

Those snapshots include review-ready notebook diff material such as:

  • changed-cell source text
  • limited neighboring context
  • output and metadata summaries
  • deterministic findings
  • reviewer guidance
  • stable thread anchors

NotebookLens does not store untouched full notebook revisions wholesale for the hosted beta.

For broader privacy details across the Action and hosted workspace surfaces, see privacy.md.

Troubleshooting

Start with troubleshooting.md if:

  • the check run does not appear
  • the hosted link fails to open
  • reviewers cannot sign in with GitHub OAuth
  • GitHub PR sync looks delayed or falls back to the workspace comment

For deployment-specific issues, use: