Anaconda Notebooks is a hosted JupyterLab service that enables you to run JupyterLab notebooks online while simultaneously taking advantage of conda’s robust environment management tools. With Anaconda Toolbox’s quickstart environments, you can select from a curated collection of data science packages tailored for different analytical needs. These ready-to-install environments eliminate the need to manually configure dependencies and let you to focus on extracting insights from your data rather than managing package compatibility.
Quickstart environments are currently only available for the Local Toolbox.

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System requirements

  • Anaconda Navigator version 2.6 or later.
  • Anaconda Toolbox version 4.20.0 or later.
  • An internet connection.
  • An Anaconda.com account.
  • Adequate disk space for environments.
    Installation times vary based on your internet connection speed.
    Each environment’s size is listed on its quickstart environment card in Anaconda Toolbox.
    The anaconda-ml-ai environment requires a large amount of disk space. To free up space, we recommend opening a notebook terminal and running conda clean --all to free up space after installation.

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Installing a quickstart environment

To install a new quickstart environment:
  1. Click Create new Environment in Anaconda Toolbox:
  2. Click Install on the environment you want to install.

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Quickstart environments

Anaconda Toolbox includes four quickstart environments to accelerate your data science workflow with curated package collections:
The python-starter environment is a simple environment that you can customize to your own needs.

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Activating an environment

To activate a new environment:
  1. Open a new Launcher by clicking the blue plus in the top-left corner of the File Browser.
  2. Select the environment under Notebook.
A new notebook opens with the selected environment assigned as the runtime.

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Adding packages to an environment

To add packages to an environment, use the ! syntax to access the system shell and run conda commands. In a notebook cell, run:
# Replace <PACKAGE_NAME> with the name of the package you want to install
!conda install <PACKAGE_NAME>

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Updating packages

To update a package in your environment, use the ! syntax to access the system shell and run conda commands. In a notebook cell, run:
# Replace <PACKAGE> with the name of the package you want to update
!conda update <PACKAGE>

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Deactivating environments

It is best practice to deactivate your environment when you are finished working in it.
To deactivate your active environment, run the following command in a notebook cell:
!conda deactivate

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Uninstalling environments

We recommend uninstalling quickstart environments from Anaconda Toolbox. Uninstalling a quickstart environment via the CLI or Navigator can result in an “Error starting kernel” message. See the frequently asked question below for details.
To uninstall an environment from Anaconda Toolbox, click Uninstall.

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Frequently asked questions

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Are package versions specified in the quickstart environments?

No, quickstart environments include a list of packages to install, but rely on the conda solver to select the most up-to-date versions that are compatible with the other packages and their dependencies. After installation, you can verify installed package versions by running !conda list in a notebook cell in the active environment. You can also view package versions on the Environments page in Navigator.

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Can I view security information like CVEs for the installed packages?

While security information isn’t directly accessible, installation security is managed through channel configurations. When installing a quickstart environment, conda uses the channels list available in your .condarc file. For business tier customers, this means that you are only able to install quickstart environments if your organization’s policies allow it.

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Which channels do I need?

All environments require either the Anaconda defaults channel or conda-forge to be included in your .condarc file. You can update your channels in Navigator or with conda via the CLI.

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How long does an environment take to install?

The python-starter environment, which includes the fewest packages, is the quickest to install and should complete in fewer than five minutes. The anaconda-ai-ml environment, on the other hand, could take up to 15 minutes to install, due to the large size of some of the packages and complexity of the package dependency resolution process. Exact installation times vary depending on your internet download speeds and hardware specifications.

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Can I install more than one quickstart environment?

Yes! You can install one or all of these environments, provided your computer has the available disk space.

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How do I stop or interrupt an environment from installing?

To stop or interrupt a quickstart environment during installation, completely close your Jupyter instance (not just the tab or window), then reopen it via Navigator or the command line.

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The environment card in Toolbox says the environment is installed, but I don’t see it in the Launcher or runtime selector.

First, try refreshing the browser page. If the environment still doesn’t appear after refreshing, check the Environments page in Navigator to see if it’s available. If the environment is still unavailable after waiting 2 minutes, close all open Jupyter sessions and restart Jupyter from Navigator or the command line.

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I got an error message while installing. What should I do?

First, check your .condarc file and verify that your channels are set to either defaults or conda-forge. If your channels are set correctly and you’re still experiencing issues, check with your administrator to see if they have defined any policies that could be blocking installation. If neither of the above resolves the issue, you can try:
  • Refreshing the page
  • Checking your internet connection
  • Shutting down all running Jupyter kernels and restarting your Jupyter instance

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If I’ve uninstalled an environment, can I continue working?

You can continue working in the same notebook, but you’ll need to select an existing runtime. This can be done through the runtime selector, the Launcher, or by using the terminal. Any previously executed cells might need to be re-run in the new runtime.

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I’m getting an error saying, “Error starting kernel: [Errno 2] No such file or directory”.

Uninstalling a quickstart environment via the CLI or Navigator can result in this message, as the Jupyter kernel references won’t be properly removed when the environment is deleted. To resolve this issue:
  1. Open Anaconda Prompt (Terminal in macOS/Linux)
  2. Run: 
    jupyter kernelspec list
  3. Find the name of the quickstart environment you deleted.
  4. Then run: 
    # Replace <ENV_NAME> with the name of the deleted environment
jupyter kernelspec uninstall <ENV_NAME>