System details:
Positron and OS details:
Positron Version: 2026.05.0 build 13
Code - OSS Version: 1.109.2
Commit: 841ee7342bac43cf1e3b670afeb90c3d7c01b75c
Date: 2026-04-06T07:50:49.664Z
Electron: 39.3.0
Chromium: 142.0.7444.265
Node.js: 22.21.1
V8: 14.2.231.22-electron.0
OS: Darwin arm64 25.4.0
Session details:
any
Describe the issue:
Positron can hang at startup during extension activation when there is an error activating extensions. When this happens, you get stuck in a "preparing" state.
Steps to reproduce the issue:
Unknown, but it has happened to me regularly over the past couple of weeks, with release builds and dev builds. It always appears to happen at startup after a version update, so it may be related to bootstrapped extensions.
Errors
I see two errors, one related to air:
ERR ENOENT: no such file or directory, access '/Users/jmcphers/.positron/extensions/posit.air-vscode-0.24.0-darwin-arm64': Error: ENOENT: no such file or directory, access '/Users/jmcphers/.positron/extensions/posit.air-vscode-0.24.0-darwin-arm64'
at async Object.access (node:internal/original-fs/promises:608:10)
at async Object.realpath2 (file:///Applications/Positron.app/Contents/Resources/app/out/vs/workbench/api/node/extensionHostProcess.js:9696:5)
And one related to vscode-python-envs:
INFO Auto updating outdated extensions. ms-python.vscode-python-envs
workbench.desktop.main.js:22155 ERR Cannot install the 'Python Environments' extension because it conflicts with Positron built-in features.: Incompatible: Cannot install the 'Python Environments' extension because it conflicts with Positron built-in features.
at positronExtensionCompatibilityError (vscode-file://vscode-app/Applications/Positron.app/Contents/Resources/app/out/vs/workbench/workbench.desktop.main.js:821237:17)
at ExtensionManagementService4.updateFromGallery (vscode-file://vscode-app/Applications/Positron.app/Contents/Resources/app/out/vs/workbench/workbench.desktop.main.js:822398:29)
at async vscode-file://vscode-app/Applications/Positron.app/Contents/Resources/app/out/vs/workbench/workbench.desktop.main.js:582264:23
I'm not sure which is responsible for the startup failure.
The extension host is running:
INFO Started local extension host with pid 69881.
...
$ ps -p 69881
PID TTY TIME CMD
69881 ?? 0:00.47 /Applications/Positron.app/Contents/Frameworks/Positron Helper (Plugin).app/Contents/MacOS/Positron Helper (
although many extensions do not appear to have activated and most React rendering on the front end is dead.
System details:
Positron and OS details:
Session details:
any
Describe the issue:
Positron can hang at startup during extension activation when there is an error activating extensions. When this happens, you get stuck in a "preparing" state.
Steps to reproduce the issue:
Unknown, but it has happened to me regularly over the past couple of weeks, with release builds and dev builds. It always appears to happen at startup after a version update, so it may be related to bootstrapped extensions.
Errors
I see two errors, one related to air:
And one related to vscode-python-envs:
I'm not sure which is responsible for the startup failure.
The extension host is running:
...
although many extensions do not appear to have activated and most React rendering on the front end is dead.