Ctrl+Alt+Home now echoes R code. How can I restore the previous behavior?

[marcfulmer]

After updating Positron on Windows, I noticed that Ctrl+Alt+Home now echoes the R code to the console when running from the beginning of the script through the current line. I have RStudio keybindings enabled.

Previously, this shortcut ran the code without echoing the script’s contents, leaving the console focused on the output. The change makes longer scripts much noisier to run.

Was this an intentional change, or could it be a regression? Is there a setting or keybinding argument that restores the previous behavior while keeping results, messages, warnings, and errors visible?

System information

Positron Version: 2026.10.0 (user setup) build 297
Code - OSS Version: 1.134.0
Commit: 73a7e19
Date: 2026-10-08T16:46:29+02:00
Electron: 42.8.1
Chromium: 148.0.7778.280
Node.js: 24.18.1
V8: 14.8.178.38-electron.0
OS: Windows_NT x64 10.0.26300

[niravpatidar37]

Short answer: I couldn't find a setting or command argument that hides the code, and as far as I can tell from the source, this command has always echoed it. Ctrl+Alt+Home runs workbench.action.positronConsole.executeCodeBeforeCursor. That command takes the editor text from line 1 to the end of the current line and submits it to the Console as input, so the code shows up the same way it would if you typed it there.

• Command and default binding: positronConsoleActions.ts#L1156-L1201. It takes only allowIncomplete, languageId, mode and errorBehavior. None of them hides the input while keeping output visible. The Silent mode is documented as "Displayed to user: No" (positron.d.ts#L155-L185).
• With the RStudio keymap, Ctrl+Alt+B is bound to the same command (positronKeybindings.contribution.ts#L149-L154).
• The command was added in Add keyboard shortcuts for running code before/after the cursor #10191 (October 2025) and has sent the code to the Console since then. I diffed the 2026.09.1-2 and 2026.10.0-297 tags: positronConsoleActions.ts, the RStudio keybindings file and the R extension's commands.ts are identical in both. If you updated from 2026.08 or earlier, Improve speed and responsiveness for code entered or sent to the Console #15078 reworked how code sent to the Console is submitted (R input is now split into statements). I haven't checked whether that changes how the echoed input looks.
• The only built-in R command that doesn't echo is r.sourceCurrentFile (source(path) without echo = TRUE, commands.ts#L536-L539), but it always runs the whole file.

Workaround: source up to the cursor from a keybinding

Positron's R kernel supports rstudioapi::getSourceEditorContext(), which returns the editor buffer (including unsaved edits) and the cursor position (ark document-api.R#L50-L71). workbench.action.executeCode.console takes langId and code args (languageRuntimeActions.ts#L1793-L1910). Combined, they let you run lines 1..cursor through source() with echo = FALSE, print.eval = TRUE, so only one short line appears as input.

Requires install.packages("rstudioapi"). Then add this to keybindings.json (Command Palette > "Preferences: Open Keyboard Shortcuts (JSON)"):

[
  {
    "key": "ctrl+alt+home",
    "command": "workbench.action.executeCode.console",
    "when": "editorTextFocus && editorLangId == r",
    "args": {
      "langId": "r",
      "code": "local({ctx <- rstudioapi::getSourceEditorContext(); n <- ctx$selection[[1]]$range$start[['row']]; source(exprs = parse(text = ctx$contents[seq_len(n)]), local = globalenv(), print.eval = TRUE)})"
    }
  }
]

Add a copy with "key": "ctrl+alt+b" if you use the RStudio shortcut. Because the rule has a when clause for R files, the default binding still applies in Python and other files.

Caveats:

• Messages, warnings, errors and auto-printed values still appear. As with source(), the run stops at the first error, and warnings are reported when the call finishes rather than after each line.
• The one-line local(...) call is echoed and added to Console history.

If you want this as a built-in option, a feature request issue for an "echo" toggle on the run-to-cursor commands would be the way to ask the team.

Tested with: source review only. I read the source at posit-dev/positron@4f600c7 (main) and the release tags above, posit-dev/ark@d5e185b, and the source() reference page in the R documentation.
Not tested: I didn't run the keybinding in Positron or the R snippet in R. Please try it on a small script first.

[marcfulmer]

Thanks for looking into this. The workaround works. I may have misremembered whether the code was echoed before, but I’d prefer having the submitted code appear together, followed by its output, rather than having output interleaved with individual statements. Should I submit a feature request to revert to the previous behavior and add the optional echo toggle you suggested?

[jmcphers]

This interleaving is a side effect of the console's completeness check (which is relatively new behavior). Try turning off Console: Prompt when Incomplete:

Does that make it behave as you expect?

[niravpatidar37]

+1 to @jmcphers. The split happens in enqueueCode (positronConsoleService.ts#L2269-L2296), and turning that setting off runs the code as one block.

If you'd rather keep the continuation prompt when you type in the Console, the same code path also skips the split when the command is called with allowIncomplete: true (positronConsoleActions.ts#L1181-L1199). So you can change only this shortcut by replacing the rule I gave you earlier with:

{
  "key": "ctrl+alt+home",
  "command": "workbench.action.positronConsole.executeCodeBeforeCursor",
  "args": { "allowIncomplete": true },
  "when": "editorTextFocus && editorLangId == r"
}

The catch: if the cursor is inside an unfinished statement, the partial code still runs and R reports a parse error.

Not tested in Positron; I traced it in the source at main@4fa2fa5. The same code is in the 2026.09.0 through 2026.10.1 tags.

[marcfulmer]

Yes, it's the console's completeness check! Thank you @niravpatidar37 and @jmcphers! If my workflow changes where I need the continuation prompt, I'll add the ctrl+alt+home rule. Thanks again!