Keyboard Shortcuts

Positron’s keyboard shortcuts, with a few exceptions, are a superset of the keyboard shortcuts used by Visual Studio Code. This table lists the shortcuts specifically added for Positron.

Global shortcuts

Shortcut	Description
`Cmd/Ctrl`+`Enter`	Run the selected code in the editor; if no code is selected, run the current statement
`Cmd/Ctrl`+`Shift`+`0`	Restart the interpreter currently open in the Console
`Cmd/Ctrl`+`Shift`+`Enter`	Run the file open in the editor (using e.g. `source()` or `%run`)
`F1`	Show contextual help for the topic under the cursor
`Cmd/Ctrl`+`K`, `Cmd/Ctrl`+`R`	Show contextual help for the topic under the cursor (alternate binding)
`Cmd/Ctrl`+`K`, `F`	Focus the Console
`Ctrl`+`L`	Clear the Console

R shortcuts

Shortcut	Description
`Cmd/Ctrl`+`Shift`+`M`	Insert the pipe operator (`\|>` or `%>%`)
`Alt`+`-`	Insert the assignment operator (`<-`)
`Cmd/Ctrl`+`Shift`+`L`	Load the current R package, if any
`Cmd/Ctrl`+`Shift`+`B`	Build and install the current R package, if any
`Cmd/Ctrl`+`Shift`+`T`	Test the current R package, if any
`Cmd/Ctrl`+`Shift`+`E`	Check the current R package, if any
`Cmd/Ctrl`+`Shift`+`D`	Document the current R package, if any

RStudio keymap

If you’d prefer to use RStudio keybindings, do the following:

Open Positron’s settings via Cmd/Ctrl+,
Search for “keymap”, or navigate to Extensions > RStudio Keymap
Check the “Enable RStudio key mappings for Positron” checkbox

The following RStudio keymappings will then be enabled:

Shortcut	Description
`Ctrl`+`1`	Focus Source
`Ctrl`+`2`	Focus Console
`Cmd/Ctrl`+`.`	Go to Symbol
`Cmd/Ctrl`+`Shift`+`C`	Comment/Uncomment a line
`Cmd/Ctrl`+`Shift`+`N`	Create a new R file
`F2`	Go to definition
`Cmd/Ctrl`+`I`	Reindent selection
`Cmd/Ctrl`+`Shift`+`A`	Reformat selection
`Cmd/Ctrl`+`Shift`+`S`	Source the current R script
`Cmd/Ctrl`+`Alt`+`Shift`+`M`	Rename
`Cmd/Ctrl`+`Alt`+`I`	Insert a new Quarto/R Markdown cell
`Cmd/Ctrl`+`Alt`+`M`	Open version control pane
`Cmd/Ctrl`+`Alt`+`Left`	Go to previous tab
`Cmd/Ctrl`+`Alt`+`Right`	Go to next tab
`Cmd/Ctrl`+`D`	Delete the current line
`Cmd/Ctrl`+`Shift`+`M`	Insert pipe operator
`Cmd/Ctrl`+`Shift`+`R`	Insert section
`Alt`+`Shift`+`K`	Open global keybindings list
`Alt`+`-`	Insert left assignment operator `<-`

Custom shortcuts

Because Positron is built on top of VS Code, you can use its infrastructure for defining custom keybindings. You can use this infrastructure with any Positron-specific commands, such as workbench.action.executeCode.console or workbench.action.executeCode.silently.

As a specific example, you could add the following to your user keybindings.json (access this file from the Command Palette with Open Keyboard Shortcuts (JSON)) to make a keyboard shortcut to create a reprex from your current selection:

{
    "key": "Cmd+Shift+R",
    "command": "workbench.action.executeCode.console",
    "when": "editorTextFocus",
    "args": {
        "langId": "r",
        "code": "reprex::reprex_selection()",
        "focus": true
    }
}