Positron

Positron is an IDE for data science from Posit PBC, the creators of RStudio, the tidyverse, and Shiny. It is built on Code OSS and combines notebooks, scripts, and a multi-session console with a data explorer, variables and plots panes, and tools for publishing data applications. Posit describes it as free, and the desktop app is available for Windows, macOS, and Linux.

What It Is

Positron is a data science IDE with first-class support for R, Python, and SQL (SQL through the ggsql extension). An integrated console drives specialized views such as the Data Explorer, Variables pane, and Plots pane, so users can inspect their session as they work. Because it is built on Code OSS, it supports VS Code-compatible VSIX extensions, and extensions can add other languages such as Julia.

Analysis and Data Workflow

Users can move between notebooks, including the Positron Notebook Editor for Jupyter, and a persistent console that supports multiple sessions. The Data Explorer lets users browse and manipulate large local or remote datasets, with summary profiles for each column. Quarto support covers reproducible reports and presentations, and folder templates help set up projects automatically. Interpreters run separately from the IDE, so a language crash does not always crash the IDE, and users can switch language versions without reloading it.

Posit Assistant and AI Features

Posit Assistant is described as an AI assistant that connects to live Python or R sessions, sees the user's data, and helps explore, visualize, build, and debug. The FAQ says it can optionally use context such as active session state, defined data frames and objects, plots from the Plots pane, and console input and output.

Publishing and Server Options

Posit Publisher deploys apps and reports to Posit Connect and Posit Connect Cloud. Beyond the desktop app, Positron can connect to Linux servers over remote SSH. Positron Pro runs on Posit Workbench and, in public preview, on Amazon SageMaker. Qualified academic institutions can host Positron Server on JupyterHub. Positron is licensed under the source-available Elastic License 2.0.