diff --git a/ci/check-json.sh b/ci/check-json.sh
index 7a23336bb..c81d9c9b2 100755
--- a/ci/check-json.sh
+++ b/ci/check-json.sh
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-#!/bin/bash
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
 #
 # This script serves to check YAML files in this repository that contain particular
 # key fields where JSON string is expected. Such JSON strings are extracted and
@@ -10,7 +10,19 @@
 # In case of the PR on GitHub, this check is tied to GitHub actions automatically,
 # see `.github/workflows` directory.
 
-shopt -s globstar
+if ! shopt -s globstar; then
+  echo "macOS ships bash-3.2 that does not know shopt -s globstar; install newer bash from homebrew"
+  exit 1
+fi
+
+# yq: `brew install yq` or `apt-get install yq`
+# json_verify: `brew install yajl` or `apt-get install yajl-tools`
+for dep in yq json_verify; do
+  if ! which -- ${dep} >/dev/null; then
+    echo "the dependency ${dep} is not installed; install it now"
+    exit 1
+  fi
+done
 
 function check_json() {
     local f="${1}"
@@ -22,15 +34,19 @@ function check_json() {
     echo "Checking: '${f}' - for '${string}':"
 
     if grep --quiet --extended-regexp "${string}" "${f}"; then
-    #if $(grep -e "${string}" "${f}"); then
-        jsons=$(yq -r ".spec.tags[].annotations.\"${string}\"" "${f}")
-        
-        while IFS= read -r json; do
-            echo "    ${json}"
-            echo -n "  > "; echo "${json}" | json_verify || ret_code="${?}"
-        done <<< "${jsons}"
+        local tmp_dir
+        tmp_dir=$(mktemp --directory -t check-jsons-in-file-XXXXXXXXXX-)
+        if ! (cd "${tmp_dir}"; yq --split-exp "\$index" --unwrapScalar ".spec.tags[].annotations.\"${string}\"" "${f}"); then
+          echo "yq failed to run"
+          return 1
+        fi
+
+        for json in "${tmp_dir}"/*.yml; do
+            echo "    "; cat "${json}"
+            echo -n "  > "; json_verify < "${json}" || ret_code="${?}"
+        done
     else
-	echo "    Ignoring as this file doesn't contain necessary key field '${string}' for check"
+        echo "    Ignoring as this file doesn't contain necessary key field '${string}' for check"
     fi
 
     return "${ret_code}"
@@ -48,20 +64,27 @@ function split_yaml_file() {
     return 0
 }
 
-ret_code=0
+function main() {
+    local ret_code=0
 
+    # Some yaml files can contain more definitions.
+    # This is a problem for `yq` tool so we need to split these into separate files.
+    local tmp_dir
+    tmp_dir=$(mktemp --directory -t check-json-XXXXXXXXXX-)
+    for f in **/*.yaml; do
+        echo "Splitting the '${f}' file."
+        split_yaml_file "${f}" "${tmp_dir}" || ret_code="${?}"
+    done
 
-# Some yaml files can contain more definitions.
-# This is a problem for `yq` tool so we need to split these into separate files.
-tmp_dir=$(mktemp --directory --suffix=-check-json)
-for f in **/*.yaml; do
-    echo "Splitting the '${f}' file."
-    split_yaml_file "${f}" "${tmp_dir}" || ret_code="${?}"
-done
+    for f in "${tmp_dir}"/*; do
+        check_json "${f}" "opendatahub.io/notebook-software" || ret_code="${?}"
+        check_json "${f}" "opendatahub.io/notebook-python-dependencies" || ret_code="${?}"
+    done
 
-for f in "${tmp_dir}"/*; do
-    check_json "${f}" "opendatahub.io/notebook-software" || ret_code="${?}"
-    check_json "${f}" "opendatahub.io/notebook-python-dependencies" || ret_code="${?}"
-done
+    exit "${ret_code}"
+}
 
-exit "${ret_code}"
+# allows sourcing the script into interactive session without executing it
+if [[ "${0}" == "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}" ]]; then
+    main
+fi
diff --git a/manifests/base/code-server-notebook-imagestream.yaml b/manifests/base/code-server-notebook-imagestream.yaml
index dffbdb0bb..fea8110eb 100644
--- a/manifests/base/code-server-notebook-imagestream.yaml
+++ b/manifests/base/code-server-notebook-imagestream.yaml
@@ -16,8 +16,25 @@ spec:
   tags:
     # N Version of the image
     - annotations:
-        opendatahub.io/notebook-software: '[{"name":"Python","version":"v3.11"}]'
-        opendatahub.io/notebook-python-dependencies: '[{"name":"code-server","version":"4.92"}]'
+        # language=json
+        opendatahub.io/notebook-software: |
+          [
+            {"name": "code-server", "version": "4.92"},
+            {"name": "Python", "version": "v3.11"}
+          ]
+        # language=json
+        opendatahub.io/notebook-python-dependencies: |
+          [
+            {"name": "Boto3", "version": "1.34"},
+            {"name": "Kafka-Python", "version": "2.0"},
+            {"name": "Matplotlib", "version": "3.8"},
+            {"name": "Numpy", "version": "1.26"},
+            {"name": "Pandas", "version": "2.2"},
+            {"name": "Scikit-learn", "version": "1.4"},
+            {"name": "Scipy", "version": "1.12"},
+            {"name": "Sklearn-onnx", "version": "1.16"},
+            {"name": "ipykernel", "version": "6.29"}
+          ]
         openshift.io/imported-from: quay.io/opendatahub/workbench-images
         opendatahub.io/workbench-image-recommended: 'true'
         opendatahub.io/notebook-build-commit: $(odh-codeserver-notebook-image-commit-n)
@@ -29,8 +46,26 @@ spec:
         type: Source
     # N-1 Version of the image
     - annotations:
-        opendatahub.io/notebook-software: '[{"name":"Python","version":"v3.9"}]'
-        opendatahub.io/notebook-python-dependencies: '[{"name":"code-server","version":"4.22"}]'
+        # language=json
+        opendatahub.io/notebook-software: |
+          [
+            {"name": "code-server", "version": "4.22"},
+            {"name": "Python", "version": "v3.9"}
+          ]
+        # language=json
+        opendatahub.io/notebook-python-dependencies: |
+          [
+            {"name": "Boto3", "version": "1.34"},
+            {"name": "Kafka-Python", "version": "2.0"},
+            {"name": "Matplotlib", "version": "3.8"},
+            {"name": "Numpy", "version": "1.26"},
+            {"name": "Pandas", "version": "2.2"},
+            {"name": "Plotly", "version": "5.19"},
+            {"name": "Scikit-learn", "version": "1.4"},
+            {"name": "Scipy", "version": "1.12"},
+            {"name": "Sklearn-onnx", "version": "1.16"},
+            {"name": "ipykernel", "version": "6.29"}
+          ]
         openshift.io/imported-from: quay.io/opendatahub/workbench-images
         opendatahub.io/workbench-image-recommended: 'false'
         opendatahub.io/notebook-build-commit: $(odh-codeserver-notebook-image-commit-n-1)