Livebook

What is Livebook?

Livebook is an open source, interactive notebook built on Elixir that lets you write and run code cells alongside Markdown in the browser. It powers data workflows, visualizations, machine learning, and internal apps, and stores each notebook as a plain-text .livemd file that version-controls cleanly.

What is Livebook best for?

Livebook is best for Elixir teams and data-minded engineers who want a reproducible, collaborative notebook without leaving the BEAM ecosystem — exploring data, prototyping ML, debugging live production systems, and turning a notebook into a small internal app. It also suits anyone who wants notebooks whose files diff and merge like normal code.

What can Livebook do?

• Live Elixir code cells evaluated on demand, with a CodeMirror editor offering autocompletion, inline docs, and formatting.
• Smart cells — low-code building blocks that generate real code for database queries, chart plotting, file uploads, and more.
• Python cells with autocompletion and hover docs, plus zero-copy Apache Arrow data transfer between Python and Elixir.
• Interactive outputs via the Kino library: Vega-Lite charts, tables, maps, inputs, and forms that react to your code.
• Real-time collaboration — multiple people edit and run the same notebook at once, no extra configuration.
• Reproducible runs with predictable execution order, built-in package management, and per-notebook dependencies.
• .livemd format — a Markdown subset supporting Mermaid diagrams and KaTeX math, so notebooks live in Git.
• Deploy anywhere — desktop apps (macOS, Windows, Linux), Docker, embedded devices via Nerves, or a hosted cloud.

Where does Livebook fall short?

Livebook is Elixir-first: Python support is genuine but secondary, and there’s no built-in support for R, Julia, or the broad scientific-Python stack that Jupyter-based tools assume — if your team lives in pandas and scikit-learn, a Jupyter environment is the more natural home.

Its data-science library ecosystem (Nx, Explorer, Scholar) is younger and smaller than Python’s, so some algorithms and integrations simply don’t exist yet. And multi-user access control — teams, deployment, and audited connections to production systems — is handled by the separate Livebook Teams offering rather than the open source core.

Is Livebook free?

Yes — Livebook is fully open source under the Apache-2.0 license and free to run yourself on desktop, Docker, or your own servers, with no seat limits or feature paywalls in the core app. Livebook Teams is a separate paid product that adds organization-wide notebook deployment, shared secrets, and auditable access to production systems.

What does Livebook replace?

Livebook is a self-hosted alternative to hosted notebook clouds like Google Colab, Deepnote, and Databricks notebooks. It trades their managed GPUs and Python-centric ecosystems for full ownership of your environment, plain-text notebook files, and first-class Elixir — a good fit when your stack already runs on the BEAM.

FAQ

Is Livebook open source? Yes. Livebook is released under the Apache-2.0 license, and its source is developed openly on GitHub by the Livebook team (led by Elixir’s creator, José Valim, at Dashbit).

Can I self-host Livebook for free? Yes. The full app is free to self-host via the desktop installers, a Docker image, or a direct Elixir install — no license fee. Only the optional Livebook Teams add-on is paid.

Can Livebook run Python? Yes. Livebook supports Python cells with autocompletion and inline docs, and can transfer Apache Arrow data between Python and Elixir with zero copies — but Elixir remains its primary language.

What do I need to run Livebook? The easiest paths are the desktop app or Docker, which bundle everything. A direct install needs Elixir v1.18+ on the Erlang VM. By default Livebook binds to localhost and generates a token for authentication.