Disable save commands due to autosaving to avoid user confusion

src/disablesave.ts

@@ -0,0 +1,117 @@
+import {
+  JupyterFrontEnd,
+  JupyterFrontEndPlugin
+} from '@jupyterlab/application';
+import { Notification } from '@jupyterlab/apputils';
+
+const SAVE_MESSAGE = 'Autosaving is enabled, manual saves are not needed';
+
+/**
+ * The command IDs for docmanager save operations to disable
+ */
+const SAVE_COMMANDS = {
+  save: 'docmanager:save',
+  saveAs: 'docmanager:save-as',
+  saveAll: 'docmanager:save-all',
+  toggleAutosave: 'docmanager:toggle-autosave'
+} as const;
+
+// Show the notification every 20 manual save operations
+const NOTIFICATION_INTERVAL = 20;
+
+/**
+ * Plugin to disable save commands
+ */
+export const disableSavePlugin: JupyterFrontEndPlugin<void> = {
+  id: 'disable-save:plugin',
+  description:
+    'Disables save commands and removes their keyboard shortcuts since documents are autosaved',
+  autoStart: true,
+  activate: (app: JupyterFrontEnd): void => {
+    let saveNotifiedCount = 0;
+    let saveAsNotifiedCount = 0;
+    let saveAllNotifiedCount = 0;
+    let toggleAutosaveNotifiedCount = 0;
+    /**
+     * Override save commands and remove keyboard shortcuts after app is fully loaded
+     */
+    app.restored.then(() => {
+      // Helper function to remove existing command and add new one
+      const overrideCommand = (commandId: string, options: any) => {
+        if (app.commands.hasCommand(commandId)) {
+          // Remove existing command using private API
+          const commandRegistry = app.commands as any;
+          if (commandRegistry._commands && commandRegistry._commands.delete) {
+            commandRegistry._commands.delete(commandId);
+          }
+          app.commands.addCommand(commandId, options);
+        }
+      };
+
+      const notify = () => {
+        Notification.emit(SAVE_MESSAGE, 'info', {
+          autoClose: 2000
+        });
+      };
+
+      // Override main save command (Ctrl/Cmd+S)
+      overrideCommand(SAVE_COMMANDS.save, {
+        label: 'Save (Autosaving)',
+        caption: SAVE_MESSAGE,
+        isEnabled: () => true,
+        execute: () => {
+          if (saveNotifiedCount % NOTIFICATION_INTERVAL === 0) {
+            notify();
+          }
+          saveNotifiedCount++;
+          return Promise.resolve();
+        }
+      });
+
+      // Override save-as command (Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+S)
+      overrideCommand(SAVE_COMMANDS.saveAs, {
+        label: 'Save As… (Autosaving)',
+        caption: SAVE_MESSAGE,
+        isEnabled: () => true,
+        execute: () => {
+          if (saveAsNotifiedCount % NOTIFICATION_INTERVAL === 0) {
+            notify();
+          }
+          saveAsNotifiedCount++;
+          return Promise.resolve();
+        }
+      });
+
+      // Override save-all command
+      overrideCommand(SAVE_COMMANDS.saveAll, {
+        label: 'Save All (Autosaving)',
+        caption: SAVE_MESSAGE,
+        isEnabled: () => true,
+        execute: () => {
+          if (saveAllNotifiedCount % NOTIFICATION_INTERVAL === 0) {
+            notify();
+          }
+          saveAllNotifiedCount++;
+          return Promise.resolve();
+        }
+      });
+
+      // Override toggle autosave command
+      overrideCommand(SAVE_COMMANDS.toggleAutosave, {
+        label: 'Autosave Documents (Autosaving)',
+        caption: SAVE_MESSAGE,
+        isEnabled: () => true,
+        isToggled: () => true,
+        execute: () => {
+          if (toggleAutosaveNotifiedCount % NOTIFICATION_INTERVAL === 0) {
+            notify();
+          }
+          toggleAutosaveNotifiedCount++;
+          return Promise.resolve();
+        }
+      });
+
+      console.log('Full autosave enabled, save commands disabled');
+    });
+  }
+};

src/index.ts

@@ -43,6 +43,7 @@ import { AwarenessKernelStatus } from './kernelstatus';
 
 import { codemirrorYjsPlugin } from './codemirror-binding/plugin';
 import { notebookFactoryPlugin } from './notebook-factory';
+import { disableSavePlugin } from './disablesave';
 
 /**
  * Initialization data for the @jupyter/server-documents extension.
@@ -315,7 +316,8 @@ const plugins: JupyterFrontEndPlugin<unknown>[] = [
   kernelStatus,
   notebookFactoryPlugin,
   codemirrorYjsPlugin,
-  backupCellExecutorPlugin
+  backupCellExecutorPlugin,
+  disableSavePlugin
 ];
 
 export default plugins;