Environment variables

You can control certain aspects of RStudio by setting environment variables before starting it. RStudio reads these variables at startup, so set them in the environment that launches RStudio (for example, in your shell profile, a launcher script, or your operating system’s environment settings).

In the table below, a Value of “Non-empty” means RStudio treats the variable as enabled whenever you set it to any string other than the empty string. Setting the variable to 1 is the conventional choice, but values such as true, yes, or even 0 and false also enable the behavior because the variable is non-empty. To turn the behavior off, unset the variable rather than setting it to an empty string.

Environment Variable	Value	Platform	Impact
RS_NO_SPLASH	Non-empty	Desktop	Disables the splash screen shown while RStudio is starting up.
RSTUDIO_DISABLE_CHECK_FOR_UPDATES	Non-empty	Desktop	Disables automatic checks for new RStudio releases.
RSTUDIO_DISABLE_EXTERNAL_PUBLISH	Non-empty	Desktop, Server	Disables publishing to external services such as RPubs. Publishing to internal services (e.g., Posit Connect) remains available.
RSTUDIO_DISABLE_PACKAGES	Non-empty	Desktop, Server	Disables the package management UI.
RSTUDIO_DISABLE_PACKAGE_INSTALL_PROMPT	Non-empty	Desktop, Server	Suppresses prompts to install missing packages required by your code.
RSTUDIO_DISABLE_POSIT_ASSISTANT	Non-empty	Desktop, Server	Disables and hides the Posit Assistant features. RStudio does not display the Posit Assistant toolbar button or pane, and you cannot install or use Posit Assistant.
RSTUDIO_DISABLE_PUBLISH	Non-empty	Desktop, Server	Disables content publishing entirely, including both internal and external services.
RSTUDIO_DISABLE_WHATS_NEW	Non-empty	Desktop	Suppresses the “What’s New” dialog that is otherwise shown after RStudio is updated to a new version.