diff --git a/binder/environment.yml b/binder/environment.yml
index 8aa63ef..d354063 100644
--- a/binder/environment.yml
+++ b/binder/environment.yml
@@ -19,3 +19,4 @@ dependencies:
   - wheel
   # additional packages for demos
   # - ipywidgets
+  - jupyterlab-lsp
diff --git a/binder/overrides.json b/binder/overrides.json
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..689883f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/binder/overrides.json
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+{
+  "@krassowski/jupyterlab-lsp:completion": {
+    "layout": "detail-below"
+  }
+}
diff --git a/binder/postBuild b/binder/postBuild
index 13af5af..05564dc 100755
--- a/binder/postBuild
+++ b/binder/postBuild
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@
 
         python3 binder/postBuild
 """
+import shutil
 import subprocess
 import sys
 from pathlib import Path
@@ -42,6 +43,14 @@ _("jupyter", "server", "extension", "list")
 # initially list installed extensions to determine if there are any surprises
 _("jupyter", "labextension", "list")
 
+# install javascript language server for autocompletion and error highlighting
+# (typescript-language-server depends on tsutils which requires us to choose typescript version)
+_("jlpm", "add", "typescript-language-server", "typescript@4.1")
+
+# add overrides for LSP settings
+SETTINGS = Path(sys.prefix) / "share/jupyter/lab/settings"
+SETTINGS.mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)
+shutil.copy2("binder/overrides.json", SETTINGS / "overrides.json")
 
 print("JupyterLab with @jupyterlab/plugin-playground is ready to run with:\n")
 print("\tjupyter lab\n")