diff --git a/src/vs/workbench/api/browser/mainThreadNotebook.ts b/src/vs/workbench/api/browser/mainThreadNotebook.ts
index efdef129e3f..d927eea3612 100644
--- a/src/vs/workbench/api/browser/mainThreadNotebook.ts
+++ b/src/vs/workbench/api/browser/mainThreadNotebook.ts
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ import { MainContext, MainThreadNotebookShape, NotebookExtensionDescription, IEx
 import { Disposable } from 'vs/base/common/lifecycle';
 import { URI, UriComponents } from 'vs/base/common/uri';
 import { INotebookService, IMainNotebookController } from 'vs/workbench/contrib/notebook/common/notebookService';
-import { INotebookTextModel, INotebookMimeTypeSelector, NOTEBOOK_DISPLAY_ORDER, NotebookCellOutputsSplice, NotebookDocumentMetadata, NotebookCellMetadata, ICellEditOperation, ACCESSIBLE_NOTEBOOK_DISPLAY_ORDER, CellEditType } from 'vs/workbench/contrib/notebook/common/notebookCommon';
+import { INotebookTextModel, INotebookMimeTypeSelector, NOTEBOOK_DISPLAY_ORDER, NotebookCellOutputsSplice, NotebookDocumentMetadata, NotebookCellMetadata, ICellEditOperation, ACCESSIBLE_NOTEBOOK_DISPLAY_ORDER, CellEditType, CellKind } from 'vs/workbench/contrib/notebook/common/notebookCommon';
 import { IConfigurationService } from 'vs/platform/configuration/common/configuration';
 import { NotebookTextModel } from 'vs/workbench/contrib/notebook/common/model/notebookTextModel';
 import { IEditorService } from 'vs/workbench/services/editor/common/editorService';
@@ -226,7 +226,13 @@ export class MainThreadNotebookController implements IMainNotebookController {
 
 		document.textModel.languages = data.languages;
 		document.textModel.metadata = data.metadata;
-		document.textModel.initialize(data!.cells);
+
+		if (data.cells.length) {
+			document.textModel.initialize(data!.cells);
+		} else {
+			const mainCell = document.textModel.createCellTextModel([''], document.textModel.languages.length ? document.textModel.languages[0] : '', CellKind.Code, [], undefined);
+			document.textModel.insertTemplateCell(mainCell);
+		}
 
 		return document.textModel;
 	}