{
 "categories": [
  "developer-tools"
 ],
 "deployment": "saas",
 "evidence": [
  {
   "date": "2026-09-16",
   "fact": "homepage",
   "note": "Opened Colab's public product page. Google presents Colab as a hosted Jupyter notebook service with free compute and paid Pro and Pro+ upgrades.",
   "source": "https://colab.google/",
   "tier": "declared"
  },
  {
   "date": "2026-09-16",
   "fact": "license",
   "note": "The page advertises free compute access and paid Pro and Pro+ plans with more compute units and faster accelerators. This record treats Colab as freemium.",
   "source": "https://colab.google/",
   "tier": "declared"
  },
  {
   "date": "2026-09-16",
   "fact": "modalities.api.exists",
   "note": "Google documents the Colab API for programmatic runtime management at https://colaboratory.googleapis.com. The page was last updated 2026-09-08 UTC.",
   "source": "https://developers.google.com/colab/api/reference/rest",
   "tier": "declared"
  },
  {
   "date": "2026-09-16",
   "fact": "modalities.api.kinds[0]",
   "note": "The service is an HTTPS REST API with discovery documents for v1 and v1beta. Documented v1beta resources include runtimes and runtimespecs.",
   "source": "https://developers.google.com/colab/api/reference/rest",
   "tier": "declared"
  },
  {
   "date": "2026-09-16",
   "fact": "modalities.api.auth[0]",
   "note": "runtimes.create requires OAuth scope https://www.googleapis.com/auth/colaboratory. Last updated 2026-08-24 UTC.",
   "source": "https://developers.google.com/colab/api/reference/rest/v1beta/runtimes/create",
   "tier": "declared"
  },
  {
   "date": "2026-09-16",
   "fact": "modalities.api.coverage",
   "note": "The opened reference covers runtime create, get, list, and delete, runtime specs, subscription get, and long-running operations. It does not document notebook-cell create, execute, or rearrange. Access is beta and allowlist-only.",
   "source": "https://developers.google.com/colab/api/reference/rest",
   "tier": "declared"
  },
  {
   "date": "2026-09-16",
   "fact": "modalities.api.docs",
   "note": "Opened as Google's current Colab API REST reference.",
   "source": "https://developers.google.com/colab/api/reference/rest",
   "tier": "declared"
  },
  {
   "date": "2026-09-16",
   "fact": "modalities.mcp.first_party",
   "note": "The googlecolab/colab-mcp README is the vendor-owned MCP server that bridges a local agent to a Colab session in the browser. Named clients are Gemini CLI, Claude Code, and Windsurf.",
   "source": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/googlecolab/colab-mcp/main/README.md",
   "tier": "declared"
  },
  {
   "date": "2026-09-16",
   "fact": "modalities.mcp.verdict",
   "note": "Google Developers Blog announced the open-source Colab MCP Server on 2026-03-17 as a first-party server published by the Colab team, with uvx git+https://github.com/googlecolab/colab-mcp as the install path.",
   "source": "https://developers.googleblog.com/en/announcing-the-colab-mcp-server-connect-any-ai-agent-to-google-colab/",
   "tier": "declared"
  },
  {
   "date": "2026-09-16",
   "fact": "verdict.scores.api",
   "note": "The API exists but is beta and allowlisted, and the opened methods manage runtimes rather than notebook content. That is a usable but gated and narrow path.",
   "source": "https://developers.google.com/colab/api/reference/rest",
   "tier": "declared"
  },
  {
   "date": "2026-09-16",
   "fact": "verdict.scores.mcp",
   "note": "The official server covers notebook lifecycle for local MCP clients, but it requires a local client, an open Colab browser session, and notifications/tools/list_changed. Latest default-branch commit observed 2026-04-01; the repo was not accepting external PRs. That is limited official coverage rather than a production-hosted Workspace MCP.",
   "source": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/googlecolab/colab-mcp/main/README.md",
   "tier": "declared"
  },
  {
   "date": "2026-09-16",
   "fact": "freshness.watch[0].url",
   "note": "Opened and verified as the current colab-mcp README, including client requirements, uvx install, and the note that external contributions are not accepted.",
   "source": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/googlecolab/colab-mcp/main/README.md",
   "tier": "declared"
  },
  {
   "date": "2026-09-16",
   "fact": "freshness.watch[1].url",
   "note": "Opened and verified as the current Colab API REST reference, including the allowlist-beta notice and runtime methods.",
   "source": "https://developers.google.com/colab/api/reference/rest",
   "tier": "declared"
  },
  {
   "date": "2026-09-16",
   "fact": "freshness.watch[2].url",
   "note": "Opened and verified as the 2026-03-17 Colab MCP announcement, including notebook create, cell add/execute/rearrange, and dependency install.",
   "source": "https://developers.googleblog.com/en/announcing-the-colab-mcp-server-connect-any-ai-agent-to-google-colab/",
   "tier": "declared"
  },
  {
   "date": "2026-09-16",
   "fact": "freshness.watch[3].url",
   "note": "Opened the official MCP Registry search for google colab. The JSON response was servers: [] with count 0. First-party coverage remains the googlecolab GitHub repository.",
   "source": "https://registry.modelcontextprotocol.io/v0.1/servers?search=google%20colab",
   "tier": "scraped"
  }
 ],
 "freshness": {
  "last_verified": "2026-09-16",
  "volatility": "high",
  "watch": [
   {
    "type": "mcp",
    "url": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/googlecolab/colab-mcp/main/README.md"
   },
   {
    "type": "docs",
    "url": "https://developers.google.com/colab/api/reference/rest"
   },
   {
    "type": "docs",
    "url": "https://developers.googleblog.com/en/announcing-the-colab-mcp-server-connect-any-ai-agent-to-google-colab/"
   },
   {
    "type": "registry",
    "url": "https://registry.modelcontextprotocol.io/v0.1/servers?search=google%20colab"
   }
  ]
 },
 "homepage": "https://colab.google/",
 "id": "google-colab",
 "license": "freemium",
 "modalities": {
  "agent_docs": {
   "llms_txt": "unknown"
  },
  "api": {
   "auth": [
    "oauth2"
   ],
   "coverage": "partial",
   "docs": "https://developers.google.com/colab/api/reference/rest",
   "exists": true,
   "kinds": [
    "rest"
   ]
  },
  "cli": {
   "exists": "unknown"
  },
  "computer_use": {
   "issues": [],
   "viability": "unknown"
  },
  "data_access": {
   "export": [],
   "import": []
  },
  "extensibility": {
   "scripting": [],
   "webhooks": "unknown"
  },
  "integrations": {
   "make": "unknown",
   "n8n": "unknown",
   "power_automate": "unknown",
   "zapier": "unknown"
  },
  "mcp": {
   "first_party": true,
   "third_party": [],
   "verdict": "official"
  },
  "rpa": {
   "drivability": "unknown",
   "notes": "No repeatable UI probe was run. The first-party Colab MCP server drives an already-open notebook in the browser. The Colab API, when allowlisted, manages runtimes rather than the notebook UI.\n",
   "ui_stack": [
    "web-dom"
   ],
   "vendor_support": []
  },
  "sdk": {
   "exists": "unknown",
   "languages": [],
   "official": "unknown"
  }
 },
 "name": "Google Colab",
 "platforms": [
  "web"
 ],
 "related": {
  "alternatives": [],
  "our_products": []
 },
 "schema_version": 1,
 "score_version": 1,
 "status": "active",
 "vendor": "Google",
 "verdict": {
  "best_path": "mcp",
  "scores": {
   "api": 4,
   "cli": null,
   "computer_use": null,
   "integrations": null,
   "mcp": 6,
   "overall": 6,
   "rpa": null
  },
  "summary": "Google Colab is automatable today through the first-party Colab MCP server. This record is hosted Colaboratory notebooks, not Vertex AI Workbench, JupyterLab, or Google Drive. The googlecolab organization publishes colab-mcp. Agents that support notifications/tools/list_changed and run locally can create notebooks, add and rearrange cells, write and execute Python, and install dependencies inside an open Colab session. Install is uvx git+https://github.com/googlecolab/colab-mcp. The default-branch tip observed on 2026-09-16 was commit b9ab3899 dated 2026-04-01. The repository was not archived and was not accepting external pull requests. The Colab API at colaboratory.googleapis.com is a separate beta, allowlist-only REST surface for runtime assignment (create, get, list, delete) with OAuth scope https://www.googleapis.com/auth/colaboratory. It does not document notebook-cell editing. Official SDKs, a Colab CLI, and connector catalogs were not opened. Computer-use viability is unassessed. MCP scores 6 and is the best path because it is the vendor-owned notebook lifecycle surface. The API scores 4 because it is allowlisted beta and covers runtimes only.\n"
 }
}