Positron Pro User and Group Settings

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User data directory

Positron Pro sessions write user settings to ~/.positron-server/. To modify this, add the user-data-dir path argument to the Positron Pro configuration file. A ~ can be used to represent the user’s home directory for the desired user-data-dir path.

/etc/rstudio/positron.conf
exe=/usr/lib/rstudio-server/bin/positron-server/bin/positron-server
args=--host=0.0.0.0
user-data-dir=<desired/user/path>

User and group settings

Positron Pro sessions store user settings in a settings.json file within each user’s data directory. Administrators can configure this file by creating different template files for users and groups. When a session is launched, Workbench selects the appropriate template using the methods described later in this section, and merges it with the user’s settings.json file. Templates must be valid JSON files that contain desired user settings.

The merge process ensures that settings in a user’s settings.json file are never overridden by the template. This allows users to customize their environment without losing changes.

However, once a setting from the template has been merged into a user’s settings.json file, future changes to that setting in the template will not be applied to that user. As a result, template updates only affect users who do not already have the relevant settings defined. When updating a template, keep in mind that changes won’t automatically propagate to users who already have those settings. To ensure the update takes effect, you’ll need to notify affected users and provide instructions for updating their settings.json files manually.

Administrators can configure multiple template files to be applied to different users and/or groups. The template configured at /etc/rstudio/positron-user-settings.json is considered the default template, and will be applied for all users when there is not a corresponding user or group profile.

Configuring group settings

To configure a template that should only be applied for a group of users, create a directory at /etc/rstudio/profiles_positron/@<group-name>, replacing <group-name> with the POSIX group. Save the template in that directory with the name settings.json. Users in this group will not have the default positron-user-settings.json template applied, so you might want to copy those settings into the group template.

When settings are configured for multiple groups, and a user belongs to two or more of those groups, Workbench will select only one template file in an unpredictable order. To avoid this behavior, we recommend creating more minimal groups. If a user settings.json exists for a user, that template will be used in place of a group settings template.

Configuring user settings

To configure a template that should only be applied for a specific user, create a directory at /etc/rstudio/profiles_positron/<user-name>, replacing <user-name> with the user’s POSIX username. Save the template in that directory with the name settings.json. This user will not have the default positron-user-settings.json template or any group templates applied, so be sure all the desired settings are included within this file.

Default settings

Workbench provides a default template that instructs the IDE to use the bash shell, disable automatic extension updates, and more. The provided /etc/rstudio/positron-user-settings.json file looks like the following:

/etc/rstudio/positron-user-settings.json
{
    "terminal.integrated.defaultProfile.linux": "bash",
    "extensions.autoUpdate": false,
    "extensions.autoCheckUpdates": false,
    "quarto.path": "/usr/lib/rstudio-server/bin/quarto/bin/quarto",
    "positron.environment.enabled": false,
    "python.interpreters.exclude": [
        "/usr/bin",
        "/bin",
    ],
    "python.environmentProviders.enable": {
        "Conda": false
    }
}
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