R autocomplete works in the Console but not reliably in script editors

[davidjanmassgov]

I am having trouble with R code completion in Positron script editors.

In the R Console, attribute and namespace completion is almost immediate. For example, after typing dplyr::, I can quickly see and select functions from the dplyr package. Similarly, I can inspect data-frame columns after typing my_data$.

In an R script (specifically qmd), however, the same completion is inconsistent or does not appear. I often have to copy an object reference from the script, paste it into the Console, and use completion there to find a data-frame column or package function.

Positron Version: 2026.08.1 (user setup) build 2
Code - OSS Version: 1.124.0
Commit: 48dc4ce
Date: 2026-08-09T13:35:16-06:00
Electron: 42.2.0
Chromium: 148.0.7778.97
Node.js: 24.15.0
V8: 14.8.178.14-electron.0
OS: Windows_NT x64 10.0.26200

[juliasilge]

Hmmmm, I'm not sure we've heard a lot about this so far and I don't think I've observed it myself:

A few questions to narrow this down:

1. In a chunk where my_data$ fails, does anything else complete? Type dplyr:: inside the same {r} chunk. Namespace completions need no session state, so this tells us whether the language server answers at all in that chunk.
2. Does Ctrl+Space bring up the suggestions when typing alone shows nothing?
3. Does the same object complete in a plain .R file? Open a new .R file in the same folder, then type my_data$.
4. What are your Quarto inline output settings? In Settings, search for inlineOutput, then tell me the value of both quarto.inlineOutput.enabled and positron.quarto.inlineOutput.enabled.
5. Is the .qmd file in a OneDrive folder or on a network drive?

The Output panel log might help too. Open the Output panel, pick "R Language Server" in the dropdown, then paste the last part of it. A crash or a restart in that log could explain the inconsistency.

Related to the inline output settings, Positron 2026.08.1 has a bug in this area (#15409). The R language server reads the old setting key only. If you set quarto.inlineOutput.enabled and left positron.quarto.inlineOutput.enabled unset, two language servers answer for the same chunk. One of them belongs to a session that never ran your code, so it has no columns to offer. The fix is in the 2026.09 daily builds, so a test with a daily build would tell us if this is your problem.