Install Positron
Positron is a modern, extensible IDE for data science built on Code OSS. Before you install Positron, please review the prerequisites below to ensure your system is ready.
Prerequisites
If you’re using Windows, make sure you have the latest Visual C++ Redistributable installed.
Positron works with actively supported versions of Python, from 3.9 to 3.13.
We recommend uv, or pyenv and pyenv for Windows, for managing Python versions.
Positron requires the IPython kernel (version 6.19.1 or higher) to communicate with Python. By default, the IPython kernel is bundled with Positron for the CPython implementation (the standard Python implementation) and added to the Python search path.
If you prefer finer control over your Python environment, set the python.useBundledIpykernel setting to false and install the IPython kernel manually
If you’re using an implementation other than CPython, you’ll need to install the IPython kernel manually.
If you plan to use R with Positron, ensure you have R 4.2 or higher installed. To install R, follow the instructions for your operating system at https://cloud.r-project.org/.
Alternatively, if you’d like to have multiple R installations, rig is a great tool to manage this which works well with Positron.
If you’re an R package developer, you will also want to make sure that you have the current versions of certain R packages, all of which had recent updates to make them work more smoothly in Positron. Run one of the code snippets below to ensure that you are up-to-date:
# if you're a pak person (we are!)
pak::pak(c("usethis", "cli", "crayon", "rlang", "roxygen2", "pkgload"))
# or using base R
install.packages(c("usethis", "cli", "crayon", "rlang", "roxygen2", "pkgload"))If you’re a Windows user, note that Positron doesn’t currently bundle Rtools. If you need Rtools for your package development or other work, you can either use the official guidance from CRAN on installing Rtools and putting it on the PATH, or alternatively, use rig to install and set up Rtools:
rig system rtools addInstall Positron
Download the installer for your operating system from the button below and follow the standard installation process for your platform. You only need to install Positron once, as it automatically updates to the latest version after installation.
Please review Positron’s license agreement and privacy policy. Your acceptance of this license agreement and privacy policy is required as a condition to proceeding with your download or use of the software.