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Posit Workbench Logo

Posit Workbench Positron Init container image

This container image is an init container for Workbench Kubernetes deployments that copies Positron IDE components into a shared volume for session containers to consume. The image decouples the Positron IDE server from the Workbench session image, which enables Positron version upgrades outside the regular Workbench server release cadence.

GitHub Repository GitHub Workflow Status Latest Version Docker Hub Pulls Docker Image Size

Tip

Deploying on Kubernetes? Try the Posit Workbench Helm chart!

Quick reference
Maintained by the Posit Docker team
Where to get help GitHub Issues, Images Discussion Board, the Posit Community Forum, Posit Support
Where to file issues https://github.com/posit-dev/images-workbench/issues
Source https://github.com/posit-dev/images-workbench
License MIT
Product documentation Posit Workbench documentation, Upgrading Positron in Kubernetes deployments

Related images

For Kubernetes deployments, Workbench uses several images together. See the repository README for Helm configuration.

Image Description Docker Hub GitHub Container Registry
workbench The Posit Workbench server posit/workbench posit-dev/workbench
workbench-session Session images for Kubernetes (R and Python version matrix) posit/workbench-session posit-dev/workbench-session
workbench-session-init Init container providing session runtime components posit/workbench-session-init posit-dev/workbench-session-init

How to use this image

As a Kubernetes init container

The rstudio-workbench Helm chart consumes this image from the components.positron values. If an image repository and version are provided, the chart uses the init container image to provide the specified Positron version to session pods.

session:
  image:
    repository: "ghcr.io/posit-dev/workbench-session"
    tag: "latest"

components:
  positron:
    version: "2026.08.2-5"
    image:
      repository: "ghcr.io/posit-dev/workbench-positron-init"

For a guide to which Workbench image to customize for different goals, see the Customizing images section in the Workbench repository README.

Image tags

Posit publishes images to:

  • Docker Hub: docker.io/posit/workbench-positron-init
  • GitHub Container Registry: ghcr.io/posit-dev/workbench-positron-init

Ubuntu 24.04 is the default OS.

Tag formats where YYYY.MM.P-BUILD is any supported Positron version:

  • YYYY.MM.P-BUILD - Default OS
  • YYYY.MM.P-BUILD-ubuntu-24.04 - Explicit OS
  • latest - Latest version, default OS
  • ubuntu-24.04 - Latest version, explicit OS

Architectures

Posit publishes Ubuntu 24.04 init images for both linux/amd64 and linux/arm64. Pull the same tag from either platform. Docker selects the matching manifest automatically.

Warning

Posit builds these images for both linux/amd64 and linux/arm64, but builds the workbench and workbench-session-init images for linux/amd64 only. linux/arm64 builds for those images remain in developer preview until ARM64 platform support is officially added for Workbench.

Components

The init container provides the following components in /opt/positron:

Component Path Description
Positron IDE /opt/positron/bin/positron-server/bundled/ Positron server (VS Code REH web)
Positron docs /opt/positron/docs/positron/bundled/ Positron Workbench documentation
Session init binary /usr/local/bin/positron-session-init Go entrypoint that copies components at runtime

Environment variables

Variable Description Values
PWB_POSITRON_TARGET Selects which components to copy to /mnt/init positron, positron-docs

Copy targets

  • positron: copies bin/positron-server to /mnt/init/bin/positron-server
  • positron-docs: copies docs/positron to /mnt/init/docs/positron

Volumes

The init container copies components from /opt/positron in the image into /mnt/init on the shared volume.

Mount point Description
/mnt/init Shared volume populated with the selected Positron components

The session container mounts the same volume to consume the components at the path Workbench expects.

User

The container starts as root so the entrypoint can write files into the shared volume with the permissions Workbench expects. The init container exits after the copy completes.

Migrating from legacy image

This image replaces the legacy rstudio/workbench-positron-init image. The init container behavior is unchanged. The entrypoint copies Positron components into a shared volume at /mnt/init based on the PWB_POSITRON_TARGET environment variable. The differences are in how the image is published.

Image references

Posit published the legacy image as rstudio/workbench-positron-init on Docker Hub and ghcr.io/rstudio/workbench-positron-init on GHCR, tagged by OS (jammy, ubuntu2204, jammy-<version>, ubuntu2204-<version>) for linux/amd64 only. Update your image reference to one of the new locations and pick a tag that pins to your desired Positron version. See Image tags and Architectures.

Base OS options

The legacy image shipped Ubuntu 22.04 only. This image ships Ubuntu 24.04 only. See Image tags.

What did not change

  • Source path for Positron components (/opt/positron)
  • Target path on the shared volume (/mnt/init)
  • PWB_POSITRON_TARGET environment variable selects which components to copy
  • Entrypoint behavior (one-shot copy, then exit)

Caveats

Security

Review these images before using them in production. Organizations with specific Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) or vulnerability requirements can rebuild these images to meet their security standards.

Posit rebuilds published images weekly for Posit product editions under active support to pull in operating system patches.