Turn off AI assistance in notebooks

[Ashley1]

Hi, has anyone found a way that the AI assistant can be turned off in notebooks? I would be happy to keep code introspection but I find I'm more often hitting escape than accepting the AI's suggestions (or removing the code it has suggested when I accidentally hit tab). It is a negative impact to my thought flow and productivity. Sometimes a small snippet of what it has suggested is ok however I often have to remove large chunks of what it has suggested (easier to write it myself and keep my flow). In SQL it often adds additional 'select's after the main statement which aren't even syntactically correct.

Anyone else share this concern with the imposition of the AI assistant and has anyone found a way to switch it off?

Regards,

Ashley

[Tejas2022 · Accepted solution]

Hi Ashley,

You can navigate to Settings > User > Developer.

From there:

• Disable "Assistant Quick Fix" to stop the AI from automatically suggesting fixes for errors.
• Turn off "Automatic Assistant Autocomplete" to prevent AI-based autocomplete suggestions.

This should help you control the AI assistance behavior as needed.

[Ashley1]

Thanks Tejas, I went on the hunt for this a while back and couldn't find it. Thanks for your help.

[jayshanmis]

Is there any way that admin can shut down all these functions for all users in a workspace?

[SteveOstrowski]

Hi @Ashley1,

There are a few different levels where you can control the AI assistance behavior in notebooks. Here is a breakdown:

USER-LEVEL: DISABLE AI AUTOCOMPLETE (INLINE SUGGESTIONS)

This is the setting that controls the "ghost text" inline code suggestions that appear as you type, which sounds like the main source of frustration you are describing.

1. Click your username in the upper-right corner of the workspace.
2. Select "Settings" from the dropdown menu.
3. In the Settings sidebar, select "Developer."
4. Under the "Code editor" section, toggle off "Autocomplete as you type."

With this disabled, you will no longer see automatic inline suggestions. You can still manually trigger autocomplete on demand by pressing Ctrl + Space when you want it, giving you full control over when suggestions appear.

There is also a separate toggle for "Enter key accepts autocomplete suggestions" if you want to prevent accidentally accepting suggestions with the Enter key but keep autocomplete visible.

For the AI-powered Assistant autocomplete specifically, the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Shift + Space (or Option + Shift + Space on Mac) triggers it manually. With the "Autocomplete as you type" toggle off, you should not see unsolicited AI suggestions.

DISMISSING SUGGESTIONS QUICKLY

If you prefer to keep autocomplete on but want a faster way to dismiss suggestions, pressing Escape will dismiss any inline suggestion. You can also just keep typing and the suggestion will update or disappear.

WORKSPACE ADMIN-LEVEL: DISABLE AI FEATURES ENTIRELY

If you are a workspace admin and want to go further, you can disable the AI-powered features at the workspace level:

1. Click your username in the upper-right corner.
2. Go to Settings > Workspace admin > Advanced.
3. Toggle off "Partner-powered AI features."

This disables partner-model-powered AI capabilities. Databricks-hosted models will still power basic Assistant autocomplete, but the more aggressive AI suggestions will be reduced.

DOCUMENTATION REFERENCES

For more details on these settings, see:

https://docs.databricks.com/aws/en/notebooks/notebook-editor.html
https://docs.databricks.com/aws/en/notebooks/use-databricks-assistant.html
https://docs.databricks.com/aws/en/databricks-ai/partner-powered.html

The notebook editor page covers autocomplete settings and keyboard shortcuts, while the Assistant page covers the AI-specific features.

* This reply used an agent system I built to research and draft this response based on the wide set of documentation I have available and previous memory. I personally review the draft for any obvious issues and for monitoring system reliability and update it when I detect any drift, but there is still a small chance that something is inaccurate, especially if you are experimenting with brand new features.

If this answer resolves your question, could you mark it as "Accept as Solution"? That helps other users quickly find the correct fix.