@property
    def channels_running(self):
        return (self.shell_channel.is_alive() or self.iopub_channel.is_alive() or
                self.stdin_channel.is_alive() or self.hb_channel.is_alive())
Are any of the channels created and running?
dataset/ETHPy150Open jupyter/jupyter_client/jupyter_client/client.py/KernelClient.channels_running