Positron installation and setup

Getting started with this highly recommended new IDE for R

Author
Affiliation

Jelmer Poelstra

CFAES Bioinformatics Core, Ohio State University

Published

July 7, 2026

Modified

July 12, 2026

1 Overview

Positron is a new IDE (Integrated Development Environment) created by Posit, the company behind RStudio. It’s really an alternative to RStudio — and if you’re currently using RStudio, it’s worth considering switching to Positron for a few reasons:

  1. Positron, not RStudio, will be the main focus of development for Posit moving forward.
  2. In RStudio, Posit’s AI coding assistant (Posit Assistant) can exclusively be used with a paid Posit AI subscription; while in Positron, it can be used with a GitHub login or with an API key1.
  3. If you’re also using VS Code: it is built on VS Code and extremely similar to it2.
  4. If you’re also using Python: Positron has much better support for Python than RStudio.

So, if you’d like to experiment with using in-editor AI while coding in R during and after this workshop, Positron will be the way to go. Here, we’ll install Positron and set up “Posit Assistant” for AI assistance in R.

2 Installing Positron

If you have an OSU-managed computer, whether you can (easily) install Positron depends on your operating system and whether you have local administrative privileges:

Have administrative privileges No administrative privileges
Windows ✅ ❌ (Contact the IT Service Desk)
Mac ✅ ✅ 3

So, if you have a Windows OSU-managed computer and no local administrative privileges, you will not be able to follow the below instructions.

  1. Go to the Positron download page and check the box to accept the license agreement.

  2. Download the latest release for your operating system:

    • Mac: Look for the .dmg file (Intel or Apple Silicon)
    • Windows: Look for the .exe installer
    • Linux: Look for the .deb or .rpm file depending on your distribution

  3. Install Positron:

    • Mac: Open the .dmg file and drag Positron to your Applications folder.
      • If you have a personal computer or an OSU computer with local administrative privileges, you can use the system-wide (standard) Applications folder.
      • If you have an OSU-managed computer without local administrative privileges, you should use your personal Applications folder in your Home folder.
    • Windows: Run the .exe installer and follow the prompts
    • Linux: Use your package manager to install the downloaded file

  4. Open the program!

3 Setting up Posit Assistant

Posit Assistant is Positron’s built-in AI coding assistant, designed specifically for data analysis workflows. Among other neat features, it has access to your R/Python session and can see your data frames and variables out of the box.

Posit has its own paid AI service, but fortunately, there are many ways to authenticate with Posit Assistant in Positron (unlike in RStudio). For us, it makes sense to authenticate with GitHub Copilot and/or the OSU LiteLLM API key.

Unlike with VS Code, we will do this set up on your own computer, not on OSC. The configuration will carry over to OSC, though.

3.1 Install the Posit Assistant extension

  1. Open the Extensions view in Positron by clicking the Extensions icon in the Activity Bar (the narrow, leftmost sidebar).

  2. In the search box, start typing “posit assistant”.

  3. Click Install on the “Posit Assistant” extension by Posit.

Screenshot of the Positron Extensions view showing the Posit Assistant extension.

The Extensions icon

Screenshot of the Positron Extensions view showing the Posit Assistant extension.

3.2 Authentication via the OSU LiteLLM API

In this workshop, the recommended approach is to use the same OSU LiteLLM API key we used for Claude Code in VS Code, as it’s approved for use with institutional data, and easy to set up.

  1. Click on the newly added Posit Assistant icon in Positron’s Activity Bar (the narrow bar on the far left):

  2. It should show the following — click “Help me set it up” and then “Configure LLM providers:”

Posit Assistant icon in the Activity Bar

The Posit Assistant icon

Screenshot of the Posit Assistant panel showing the Configure LLM providers button.

Screenshot of the Posit Assistant panel showing the Configure LLM providers button.

  1. At the top, select Custom Provider from the list of providers, and enter:

    • API Key: Use the API key from the ~/claude/settings.json file at OSC, or a key you obtained from https://go.osu.edu/api-fluency.
    • Base URL: https://litellm.cloud.osu.edu
    • Then, click Sign in.

    Screenshot of the Posit Assistant panel showing the Configure LLM providers button.

  2. If it worked, the assistant panel should now show:

    Screenshot of the Posit Assistant panel showing the Configure LLM providers button.

  3. In the bottom-right of the prompt box, click Select Model:

    Screenshot of the Posit Assistant panel showing the Configure LLM providers button.

  4. The models you can access via the API key are available under “OpenAI Compatible” (the first option in the list) — click “More models”:

    Screenshot of the Posit Assistant panel showing the Configure LLM providers button.

  5. In the (long!) dropdown list, select claude-opus-4-6. Then, the prompt should look something like this:

    Screenshot of the Posit Assistant panel showing the model selection dropdown.

WarningModel compatibility

You don’t need to stick to claude-opus-4-6 all the time, and should feel free to experiment with other models later. However, not all models available through the OSU LiteLLM service may work with Posit Assistant’s Custom Provider. If you get an “internal error” when trying to use the Posit Assistant, switch to a different model and try again.

3.3 Authentication via GitHub

If you’ve done the previous setup with the OSU LiteLLM API key, setting up authentication via GitHub is not required. However, like in VS Code, GitHub Copilot will provide inline code completions4, which access via the API key does not.

  1. If it’s not open already, click on the Posit Assistant icon in Positron’s Activity Bar (the narrow bar on the far left):

  2. Assuming you did the setup above, Posit Assistant will already be activated and won’t automatically prompt you to authenticate. If that’s the case, click the cog wheel icon at the top of the Posit Assistant panel and select Configure LLM providers5.

Posit Assistant icon in the Activity Bar

The Posit Assistant icon

  1. Select the provider “GitHub Copilot” and click “Sign in” (keep the default selection of OAuth for Authentication):

    Screenshot of the Posit Assistant panel showing the Configure LLM providers button.

  2. A browser window will open, asking you to authorize Posit Assistant to access your GitHub account. Log in and authorize as requested.

  3. Done! Now, when clicking on the model selection indicator in the Posit Assistant prompt, you should see models listed under a GitHub Copilot section header:

    Screenshot of the Posit Assistant panel showing the model selection dropdown.

3.4 Testing Posit Assistant

ImportantThis section assumes you have R installed on your computer.

You don’t really have to do so for this workshop, but can install R in Windows using this .exe file or Mac using this .pkg file. Or, if you have an OSU-managed computer, via the Software Center (Windows) or Ohio State Application Self Service (Mac).

Let’s verify that it works (with either a model via the API key or GitHub Copilot, depending on what you set up):

  1. The “CONSOLE” tab in the bottom Positron panel should be open. This may be an R console, but it could also be a Python console.

    • In the top-right corner of the Positron window, you should see something like this:

      Screenshot of the Positron console panel showing a Python console.

    • Click on the Python indicator, and then select New Console Session:

      Screenshot of the Positron console panel showing the New Console Session button.

      In the screenshot, Python is selected, but you’ll want to go on to select the option below it.

    • Switch to R by selecting an appropriate R version:

      Screenshot of the Positron console panel showing the Switch to R Console option.

    • When done, you should see this in the top-right instead…

      Screenshot of the Positron console panel showing an R console.

      …and your console should have switched to R as well.

  2. In the R console, create a simple data frame:

    df <- data.frame(x = 1:10, y = rnorm(10))

  3. In the Posit Assistant panel, try asking:

    Create a scatter plot of x vs y from df

  4. Posit Assistant should generate code for a plot and ask for permission to run it: click Allow.

    Screenshot of the Posit Assistant panel showing a prompt and generated code for a scatter plot.

  5. It produces the plot and shows it in its own panel, along with some neat suggestions for next steps! The plot should also appear in the Plots panel, like in RStudio, since it was actually generated on your computer with R code.

    Screenshot of the Posit Assistant panel showing a prompt and generated code for a scatter plot.

Posit Assistant can see your R session’s variables, including data frames. This means you can ask questions about your data without having to explicitly describe it — the assistant already knows what’s in your environment!

4 Connecting to OSC compute nodes

Positron, being built on VS Code, can connect to remote systems like OSC using the same SSH configuration. If you’ve already set up VS Code to connect to OSC following the earlier setup instructions, your SSH configuration will automatically work in Positron too.

If you haven’t set up the SSH connection to OSC in VS Code (or any other editor):

You’ll need to do so before you can connect from Positron. Follow the instructions in the VS Code setup guide.

Or, if you don’t want to set this up in VS Code at all, you can start at Configure the connection and instead do this in Positron (it’s identical!).

4.1 Connecting to OSC from Positron

Assuming the SSH configuration is in place:

  1. Open the Command Palette (Ctrl/⌘+Shift+P or View > Command Palette) and type “SSH connect”.

  2. Select Remote-SSH: Connect to Host... and then choose osc-cardinal-compute:

    Screenshot of the VS Code window showing the SSH connection options.

  3. A new Positron window will open and connect to OSC. This may take 30 seconds or more while a compute node is being allocated.

  4. Once connected, you may see a pop-up asking whether you “trust the authors” — click Trust and Continue.

TipQuick reconnect

Like in VS Code, after connecting once, the folder will appear in Positron’s “Recent” list on the welcome screen, making it easy to reconnect with a single click in future sessions.

4.2 Loading R at OSC

R is installed but not automatically loaded at OSC. The easiest way to make sure that Positron will find R when it connects to OSC is by adding the R module to your Bash settings file (~/.bashrc):

  1. Open a terminal in Positron (e.g., Terminal > New Terminal).

  2. Add a module load command to load R to your ~/.bashrc file:

    echo 'module load gcc/12.3.0 R/4.5.0' >> ~/.bashrc

  3. Reload Positron: Open the Command Palette (Ctrl/⌘+Shift+P or View > Command Palette) and start typing “Reload Window”, then select “Developer: Reload Window”.

  4. Positron should automatically start R in the console.

WarningThis isn’t a permanent solution to load R at OSC

Adding this module load command to your Bash settings file is not a permanent solution, because over time, there may be changes in the version(s) of R available on OSC and/or that you personally want to use (usually, multiple versions of R are available). On the plus side, this command does currently work on all three OSC clusters, since they have the same R modules.

4.3 Installing the Posit Assistant extension at OSC

The Posit Assistant does need to be separately installed at OSC: like before, open the Extensions view, find Posit Assistant, and click “Install in SSH: osc-cardinal-compute”.

Screenshot of the Posit Assistant extension in the Extensions view.

Otherwise, the Posit AI assistant will work the same way when connected to OSC as it does on your local computer, and you shouldn’t need any additional setup!

4.4 Open a folder

Positron really wants you to open a specific folder — you may have already seen it prompt you early during this configuration process.

At OSC, just like with VS Code, you should connect to the /fs/scratch/PAS3454/people/<user> folder, where <user> is your OSC username. In the Explorer, click on the “Open Folder” button and enter this path.

Screenshot of the Positron Explorer view showing the Open Folder button.

5 Appendix: Setting up Claude Code (optional)

Claude Code works in Positron just like it does in VS Code with an API key. Since you’ve already set up Claude Code for VS Code and have a ~/claude/settings.json file, the setup in Positron is straightforward.

You may consider doing this if you’re used to Claude Code or prefer it over Posit Assistant for certain tasks. Otherwise, you can skip this section and just use Posit Assistant — recall that you can use Posit Assistant with the OSU LiteLLM API key, which is also approved for institutional data.

The instructions below assume you’re at OSC, where you have a ~/.claude/settings.json file with your API key. Adjusting this for your personal computer is pretty straightforward, though: you’ll need to download the settings.json file from OSC and put it at the same location on your own computer (~/.claude/settings.json).

5.1 Install the Claude Code extension

  1. Open the Extensions view in Positron:

    • Click the Extensions icon in the Activity Bar (the leftmost sidebar), or
    • Press Ctrl/⌘+Shift+X

  2. In the search box, type “claude code”.

  3. Find the “Claude Code for VS Code”6 extension by Anthropic and click Install:

    Example of the Claude Code extension in the Extensions view

5.2 Configure authentication

Since you already have a ~/claude/settings.json file from your earlier VS Code setup, Claude Code should automatically pick it up and authenticate:

  1. After installing the extension, look for a new CLAUDE CODE tab in the sidebar (you may need to widen the sidebar to see both “CHAT” and “CLAUDE CODE” tabs).

  2. Click on the CLAUDE CODE tab.

  3. You should briefly see authentication messages, then the interface should load automatically.

  4. Once loaded, you’ll see a prompt box similar to Posit Assistant’s interface.

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Footnotes

  1. Moreover, in Positron, you can use the Claude Code extension just like in VS Code, which is not possible in RStudio.↩︎

  2. But with panels for Plots, your Environment, a Console, and so on, like you’re used to from RStudio.↩︎

  3. But you should install it in your personal, not system-wide, Applications folder.↩︎

  4. But in this case, does so via Posit Assistant rather than its own extension.↩︎

  5. This window can also be invoked via the Command Palette (Ctrl/⌘+Shift+P) and typing “Configure”, or by clicking on the “Person icon” above the cog wheel way at the bottom of the Activity Bar. In both of those contexts, it’s listed as “Configure Language Model providers”.↩︎

  6. Yes, “for VS Code”, not “for Positron”. Positron isn’t just similar to VS Code but is really a variant (“fork”) of it.↩︎