app.py

import json

if __name__ == '__main__':
    """Execute the first code block of the app.ipynb notebook."""
    with open('app.ipynb', 'r') as notebook:
        nb = json.load(notebook)
    idxs = [idx for idx, cell in enumerate(nb['cells']) if cell['cell_type']=='code']
    exec(''.join(nb['cells'][idxs[0]]['source']))