Polynote

Polynote

Netflix's open-source polyglot notebook environment that supports multiple programming languages (Scala, Python, SQL) within single notebooks. Features IDE-like capabilities with autocomplete, parameter hints, and seamless Apache Spark integration for data science workflows.

Use it when

  • Working with mixed Scala and Python codebases in ML projects
  • Need IDE-like features (autocomplete, error highlighting) in notebook environment
  • Integrating with Apache Spark for distributed computing workloads
  • Reproducible notebooks with automatic dependency and state management
  • Data visualization with native support for Vega and Matplotlib
  • JVM-based ML platform integration requiring Scala interoperability
  • Teams familiar with Netflix's ML infrastructure and practices
  • Projects requiring polyglot programming within single notebook interface

Watch out

  • No official Windows support (only Linux/macOS, WSL for Windows users)
  • Limited community adoption compared to Jupyter ecosystem
  • More complex installation process due to JVM requirements
  • Scala expertise required for full platform utilization
  • Browser compatibility primarily tested with Chrome
  • Limited programmatic notebook execution capabilities
  • Debugging Python through JVM can be challenging
  • Smaller ecosystem of extensions and community tools

Available in stages

Experimentation

Installation

Download polynote-dist.tar.gz from https://github.com/polynote/polynote/releases

Example stacks

Example stacks coming soon...