Rendering code cells containing labels in .ipynb output

[PhilChodrow]

Description

I am puzzled by some behavior I observe when rendering to .ipynb. Possibly related to #12242?

I am aiming to quarto render (ideally, not quarto convert) a .qmd file into an .ipynb while preserving runnable code blocks. However, this seems to break for cells containing cross-referenced labels.

I am running

quarto render test.qmd --no-execute

Contents of test.qmd:

---
format: ipynb
title: Test
wrap: none
---

I expect this .qmd when rendered to ipynb to contain two Markdown and two code cells.

```{python}
#| label: fig-test
print("This renders to part of a Markdown cell.")
```

But instead I got a single Markdown cell. @fig-test is not being rendered as a code cell.

```{python}
print("This renders to a code cell.")
```

Expected Result

I was expecting/hoping the resulting .ipynb to contain four cells: the first and third Markdown, the second and fourth executable code blocks.

# Test

I expect this .qmd when rendered to ipynb to contain three Markdown and two code cells.

print("This renders to part of a Markdown cell.")

Figure 1

But instead I got a single Markdown cell. <a href="#fig-test" class="quarto-xref">Figure 1</a> is not being rendered as a code cell.

print("This renders to a code cell.")

Observed Result

The resulting .ipynb contains two cells, the first Markdown and the second an executable code block.

# Test

I expect this .qmd when rendered to ipynb to contain three Markdown and two code cells.

``` python
print("This renders to part of a Markdown cell.")
```

Figure 1

But instead I got a single Markdown cell. <a href="#fig-test" class="quarto-xref">Figure 1</a> is not being rendered as a code cell.

Followed by code cell

print("This renders to a code cell.")

Quarto version 1.8.25 on MacOS 15.1.

Thank you!

[mcanouil]

What do you expect a cross-reference to do in this context?
You asked for a cross-reference, so you get one as with any formats.

What is exactly the use case behind?

[PhilChodrow]

Thanks for your attention on this.

For my use case the thing I'm most interested in is having two executable code cells.

My use-case is generating online lecture notes accompanied by interactive notebooks on Google Colab:

• Example notes
• Corresponding live notebook

Rendering to the .ipynb format (rather than converting) gives some really helpful clean-ups to the .ipynb, so I'd like to keep doing that if possible. The workflow is fine when no labels are supplied to the code cells, but breaks as in the above MWE otherwise.

[mcanouil]

Do you need a label or do you need a cross-reference?

[PhilChodrow]

I'd like the label + cross-reference to work in the .html output (and it does!). For my use I don't care too much about what happens to it in the .ipynb output.