IPython notebook: How to write cell magic which can access notebook variables?

My question is: How can I write an IPython cell magic which has access to the namespace of the IPython notebook? IPython allows writing user-defined cell magics. My plan is creating a plotting function which can plot one or multiple arbitrary Python expressions (expressions based on Pandas Series objects), whereby each line in the cell string is a separate graph in the chart. This is the code of the cell magic: ``` def p(line, cell): import pandas as pd import matplotlib.pyplot as plt df = pd.DataFrame() line_list = cell.split('\n') counter = 0 for line in line_list: df['series' + str(counter)] = eval(line) counter += 1 plt.figure(figsize = [20,6]) ax = plt.subplot(111) df.plot(ax = ax) def load_ipython_extension(ipython): ipython.register_magic_function(p, 'cell') ``` The function receives the entire cell contents as a string. This string is then split by line breaks and evaluated using eval(). The result is added to a Pandas DataFrame. Finally the DataFrame is plotted using matplotlib. Usage example: First define the Pandas Series object in IPython notebook. ``` import pandas as pd ts = pd.Series([1,2,3]) ``` Then call the magic in IPython notebook (whereby the whole code below is one cell): ``` %%p ts * 3 ts + 1 ``` This code fails with the following error: ``` NameError: name 'ts' is not defined ``` I suspect the problem is that the `p` function only receives `ts * 3\n ts + 1` as a string and that it does not have access to the `ts` variable defined in the namespace of IPython notebook (because the `p` function is defined in a separate .py file). How does my code have to be changed so the cell magic has access to the `ts` variable defined in the IPython notebook (and therefore does not fail with the NameError)?