The design of large-scale engineering systems, including but not limited to aerospace, particle accelerators, nuclear power plants, is carried out by a wide range of numerical models such as CAD files, finite-element models, and machine learning surrogate models to name a few. In order to provide a uniform modelling interface, we encapsulate numerical models in notebooks. A notebook is controlling model creation, execution, and query of results. Numerical solvers are embedded into Docker containers and provide an isolated and reproducible environment exposing a language-agnostic REST API. A model registry enables efficient queries of models. The overall system is represented as a collection of models that exchange data. Then, the design optimization involves execution of a dependency tree of models to study the impact of a parameter change and perform its optimization. In this contribution, we present a model query mechanism allowing notebook models to query one another. The model dependencies are represented with a graph with suitable processing algorithms. In order to ensure that only affected models are executed we derive and cache a model resolution order. The presented modelling framework relies on open source-technologies (packages: pydantic, Fast API, Jupyter, papermill, scrapbook, containers: Docker and Openshift as well as databases: MongoDB and Redis) and the talk will focus on good practices and design decisions encountered in the process.