Positron Assistant
Positron Assistant is an AI client that provides LLM integration within Positron, both for chat and for inline completions. Currently available in preview (Positron 2025.07.0-204 and beyond), it supports Anthropic Claude for chat and GitHub Copilot for code completions and chat.
We’re actively expanding provider support and improving the experience, and welcome you to provide feedback and report any issues you encounter!
To get started with Positron Assistant, check out the Getting Started guide.
Built for data science workflows
Positron Assistant is developed with the understanding that data science work is interactive and exploratory. Beyond having access to your code files, it can also see your loaded data, plots, and Console inputs and outputs as context.
Since much of data science and analysis happens interactively as you load, clean, and reshape data, create visualizations, and build models, this additional context allows Assistant to provide more relevant guidance.
Positron Assistant is provided relevant information about your current workspace through metadata about your Positron environment and through tool calling:
- Variables pane: Names, dimensions, and column names of dataframes and database connections, plus metadata for arrays, lists, and other objects in memory
- Plots pane: Describe current plots and suggest variations or next steps for iteration
- Console: View inputs and outputs, plus execute code and see results
- Session state: Active language (Python/R + version), loaded packages, and installed packages
This session-aware context works alongside traditional AI capabilities like understanding your active files, selected code, and project structure.
Features
Use Positron Assistant to generate or refactor code, ask questions, get help with debugging, and get suggestions for next steps in your data science projects.
Learn more
Getting Started
Learn how to set up Positron Assistant and connect to a language model provider.
Customization
Explore options for customizing Positron Assistant to fit your workflow, such as custom prompts and chat modes.
Tips & Troubleshooting
Find tips for using Positron Assistant effectively and troubleshooting common issues.
Feedback & Issues
Help us improve Positron Assistant by sharing your suggestions and reporting problems.
Posit AI Newsletter
Stay on top of important AI developments at Posit and beyond with curated updates.
Databot
Learn about Databot, a companion to Positron Assistant that focuses on exploratory data analysis.
Support and terms of service
Posit does not provide support or assistance for any code written or generated in Positron, with or without Positron Assistant via any model provider. Posit does not support the Anthropic or GitHub Copilot output, or test the logic used by either to generate code from prompts.
Anthropic
By using Anthropic Claude, you acknowledge that your use of Anthropic Claude is subject to the Anthropic Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Anthropic Claude is considered “Third Party Materials” as defined in the Posit End User License Agreement and Posit assumes no liability or other obligations with respect thereto and, without limiting the foregoing, is not liable for any loss or damage resulting from the use or access thereof.
GitHub Copilot
By using GitHub Copilot, you acknowledge that your use of GitHub Copilot is governed by their terms of service and you agree to abide by their terms of service. GitHub Copilot is considered “Third Party Materials” as defined in the Posit End User License Agreement and Posit assumes no liability or other obligations with respect thereto and, without limiting the foregoing, is not liable for any loss or damage resulting from the use or access thereof.