Inline Output

Display the output of Quarto cells directly in the source editor in Positron.

Positron can optionally display the output of Quarto cells in the source editor, similar to a Jupyter Notebook or RStudio’s R Notebooks feature. To enable inline output, turn on positron.quarto.inlineOutput.enabled.

Per-document kernels

When inline output is disabled, Positron’s Quarto execution model is similar to RStudio’s; running code from a Quarto cell sends it to the Console where you have Python or R running.

graph LR
q1[Quarto Doc 1] --> rc[Console]
q2[Quarto Doc 2] --> rc
q3[Quarto Doc 3] --> rc

When inline output is enabled, the execution model changes, and the Quarto document behaves more like a Jupyter Notebook. Positron creates an isolated Python or R session for each .qmd file. This matches typical render-time behavior, improves reproducibility by using a clean environment for each document, and resolves ambiguities around working directories.

graph LR
q1[Quarto Doc 1] --> rc1[Interpreter Session 1]
q2[Quarto Doc 2] --> rc2[Interpreter Session 2]
q3[Quarto Doc 3] --> rc3[Interpreter Session 3]

Consoles

By default, a Quarto document with inline output enabled behaves like a Jupyter Notebook, and notebooks don’t have consoles by default. To pair a console with your document, run the Console: Show Notebook Console command. Notebook consoles let you execute code in the same session used by your Quarto document without changing the document itself, and they echo any code you run from the editor.

To always show a console for your Quarto documents as well as your Jupyter Notebooks, turn on console.showNotebookConsoles.

Managing outputs

Positron creates and saves output as you run code in the document. To clear the output for a document, run the Quarto: Clear All Outputs command.

Positron caches Quarto cell outputs separately from the document in its global state directory. In typical situations, you don’t need to manage the cache, but if you are concerned about space usage or need to reset the cache, run the Quarto: Clear Inline Output Cache command.

Limitations

Inline output for Quarto documents is a new feature in Positron, and has some differences from the RStudio implementation you may be familiar with. The following limitations apply; links go to GitHub issues.