How to uninstall Positron on Mac

Positron keeps its extensions in ~/.positron, which reached about 400 MB on the test Mac after one launch, and its settings and editor state in ~/Library/Application Support/Positron. R, Python, your virtual environments and your projects are not part of Positron and stay in place when you remove it. Back up the settings you want before you delete either folder. This guide covers the download from positron.posit.co and the Homebrew cask positron.

Back up settings and keyboard shortcuts

Positron's troubleshooting page suggests running Preferences: Open User Settings (JSON) and Preferences: Open Keyboard Shortcuts (JSON) from the Command Palette, and saving copies of those files somewhere outside Positron's folders. Note the extensions you rely on as well; they can be installed again, but the list is easy to forget.

Save open files in your projects. Positron's own folders hold editor state, not your code.

Quit Positron and remove the app

1. Quit Positron from the Positron menu.
2. Search Activity Monitor for Positron and check that its Helper processes and the kcserver and pet processes it starts have exited. In the test they appeared inside Positron's own row and ended when it quit.
3. Move Positron from Finder's Applications folder to the Trash.

The recorded tests found no login item, background item or launch agent from Positron.

According to Positron's download page, Positron runs without any programming language installed and uses the R and Python you install yourself. Those installations, their packages and environments made with venv, uv, pyenv or conda remain after this; remove them separately only if nothing else uses them.

Where Positron keeps its data

The first two locations come from Positron's troubleshooting page, which resets Positron by removing them; the others were seen on the test Mac. Open each with Shift + Command + G in Finder and skip the ones that do not exist.

Your project folders belong to you and are not part of the app.

Check the result

Run these read-only commands after the app is in the Trash:

pgrep -ilf Positron
ls -d ~/.positron ~/.positron-shared "$HOME/Library/Application Support/Positron"

• No output from pgrep means nothing from Positron is running. A listed process means the app, a kernel or a helper is still open; quit it before touching its folders.
• ls prints each folder that still exists and reports "No such file or directory" for the rest. Surviving folders are expected if you kept your extensions or settings.

If you installed it with Homebrew

The positron cask's zap list includes ~/.positron with your extensions, ~/Library/Application Support/Positron with your settings, and a preferences file and saved window state under the ID com.rstudio.positron. The tested app used co.posit.positron instead, so those two entries may not match anything on your Mac. Running brew uninstall --cask --zap positron yourself moves the two folders to the Trash, whatever you selected in Mole. To keep them, remove only the app:

brew uninstall --cask positron

Mole adds --zap only when every path on the zap list sits inside ~/Library, none of them touches a row you left unchecked, and no other installed app claims them. ~/.positron is outside ~/Library, so Mole removes a Homebrew install of Positron without --zap.

What Mole lists

For Positron from positron.posit.co:

• ~/.positron and ~/Library/Application Support/Positron are listed but not selected, so your extensions and settings stay unless you tick them. The Chromium cache folders inside the second one, such as Cache, Code Cache and GPUCache, are separate rows selected by default.
• The co.posit.positron preferences file, the recent-documents list and the temporary caches filed under the bundle ID are selected by default.
• ~/.positron-shared, R, Python, your environments and your projects are not listed.

What this test covered

On September 21, 2026, Positron was copied from the official download into Applications, opened without creating a project, and uninstalled with a Preview build of Mole 1.15 with everything ticked; there was no Homebrew receipt. Its Application Support folder, about 76 MB, went to the Trash, while ~/.positron, about 400 MB, stayed because Mole did not list it then. On September 26, 2026, it was installed again from the same official download, opened once, and removed with a development build of Mole with every row ticked. Mole's Status view showed it as one row of 17 processes, about 1.4 GB, with kcserver and pet folded in. All 13 items went to the Trash, ~/.positron included, and nothing from the list, no process and no startup item was left; the small ~/.positron-shared folder stayed. R, Python, extensions you install yourself and the Homebrew cask were not tested.