# Removing a launcher category

**URL:** <https://discourse.jupyter.org/t/removing-a-launcher-category/778>\
**Category:** JupyterLab\
**Created:** [April 11, 2019, 10:46am UTC](https://discourse.jupyter.org/t/removing-a-launcher-category/778 "2019-04-11T10:46:58Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Mukunda\_Gogoi](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex031/user_avatar/discourse.jupyter.org/mukunda_gogoi/32/431_2.png) [@Mukunda\_Gogoi](https://discourse.jupyter.org/u/Mukunda_Gogoi)\
**Post date:** [April 11, 2019, 10:46am UTC](https://discourse.jupyter.org/t/removing-a-launcher-category/778/1 "2019-04-11T10:46:58Z")

</div>

Hey, guys just a quick question. I’ve been trying to implement my very own version of jupyter lab. And the primary thing which I wanted to do is to remove categories from the launcher widget. Can anyone please guide and point me in the right direction.

Right now what I’m doing is I’ve forked the entire launcher to my own extension and I’ve attached it to the main area, so with this approach, I can mod the entire launcher on my will.

So is this the right way to do so? Because I can’t find any public api in the documentation on removing categories from the launcher.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ernstch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9de0a6/32.png) [@ernstch](https://discourse.jupyter.org/u/ernstch)\
**Post date:** [April 29, 2019, 2:38pm UTC](https://discourse.jupyter.org/t/removing-a-launcher-category/778/2 "2019-04-29T14:38:05Z")

</div>

Hello Mukunda,  
your method of replacing jupyterlab launcher with your own version is of interest for many use cases. For example, we need a solution that always runs zero or one kernels. When a notebook opens, previous kernels must stop and a new kernel must start. We are currently investigating how to solve this.  
Would you elaborate what you mean by “forked the entire launcher to my own extension and I’ve attached it to the main area”?  
Thank you  
Ernst

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ellisonbg](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex031/user_avatar/discourse.jupyter.org/ellisonbg/32/14_2.png) [@ellisonbg](https://discourse.jupyter.org/u/ellisonbg)\
**Post date:** [April 30, 2019, 5:11am UTC](https://discourse.jupyter.org/t/removing-a-launcher-category/778/3 "2019-04-30T05:11:30Z")

</div>

I think it does make sense to introduce an API in the launcher that will remove a category. The challenge is what to with installed extensions that are registering items in the category. Thoughts?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Mukunda\_Gogoi](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex031/user_avatar/discourse.jupyter.org/mukunda_gogoi/32/431_2.png) [@Mukunda\_Gogoi](https://discourse.jupyter.org/u/Mukunda_Gogoi)\
**Post date:** [April 30, 2019, 6:16am UTC](https://discourse.jupyter.org/t/removing-a-launcher-category/778/4 "2019-04-30T06:16:53Z")

</div>

Hey guys, So what I did is I’ve kept the core launcher as it is and I’ve made an extension of my own say `xyz-ext` in this extension I’ve basically copy pasted the entire core-launcher extension say `my-launcher.tsx`, since categories are hard-coded inside the core launcher extension I’ve removed them in my version of the core extension.  
And finally, I’ve attached this custom launcher into the command palette.

Now the challenge which I face is to disable the existing core launcher, which If I do then there are a lot of other widgets like the file manager, shell widget, etc has dependencies on the launcher, so It will throw javascript errors. I am not sure maybe I can remove the existing launcher command from the command palette. But I’m not sure how to launch my version of the launcher when there are no widgets open in the main area.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Mukunda\_Gogoi](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex031/user_avatar/discourse.jupyter.org/mukunda_gogoi/32/431_2.png) [@Mukunda\_Gogoi](https://discourse.jupyter.org/u/Mukunda_Gogoi)\
**Post date:** [April 30, 2019, 9:54am UTC](https://discourse.jupyter.org/t/removing-a-launcher-category/778/5 "2019-04-30T09:54:24Z")

</div>

Yeah that is something the developer has to take care of it.