This allows you to install and use project-specific libraries without impacting other notebooks or shared environments.
This article is aimed at users working in Jupyter Notebooks who want a simple, repeatable way to manage dependencies.
What you need before you start
Access to Jupyter Notebook within the Omnisient platform
Permission to run notebooks in your project
Basic familiarity with Jupyter cells and magic commands
How the Venv feature works
The Venv feature is intentionally lightweight.
You only need two notebook cells to create and activate a virtual environment.
The first cell loads the Omnisient helper extension
The second cell creates and activates your virtual environment
The same command is used whether the environment already exists or not.
Step-by-step: Create and activate a virtual environment
Step 1: Load the Omnisient helper extension
In the first cell of your Jupyter Notebook, run:
%load_ext omni_helper
This enables Omnisient-specific helper commands in your notebook.
Step 2: Create and activate your virtual environment
In the second cell, run:
%omni_helper venv-activate venv
venvis the name of your virtual environmentYou can replace it with any name, for example:
analysis_envproject_a_env
Example:
%omni_helper venv-activate analysis_env
What happens behind the scenes
First run
The environment is created
This can take up to 30 minutes, depending on setup and resources
Subsequent runs
The environment already exists
Activation is near-instant
You do not need separate commands for creation and activation—the same command handles both.
Best practices
Use clear, project-specific names for your environments
Keep the two commands at the top of your notebook so the environment is always ready before running code
Reuse the same environment across notebooks in the same project where possible
Troubleshooting
The command doesn’t run
Make sure
%load_ext omni_helperis executed first
Long wait on first run
This is expected behaviour during initial environment creation
If issues persist, contact Omnisient Support via the Help Centre.
Conclusion
The Venv feature in Jupyter Notebook is designed to be simple and repeatable. With just two lines at the top of your notebook, you can create and activate a dedicated Python environment, ensuring clean dependency management and a smoother data preparation workflow on the Omnisient platform.