Davis is a Senior Software Engineer at Posit where he works on improving Positron and the tidyverse. He’s worked on core R packages like dplyr, tidyr, and vctrs, and more recently has helped build out the R infrastructure that powers Positron. This includes Ark, the Jupyter kernel that powers R code execution and language smarts, and Air , the R code formatter.
Software by Davis Vaughan#
Posts and resources by Davis Vaughan#
Open source development practices | Isabel Zimmerman & Davis Vaughan | Data Science Hangout
ADD THE DATA SCIENCE HANGOUT TO YOUR CALENDAR HERE: https://pos.it/dsh - All are welcome! We’d love to see you!
We were recently joined by Isabel Zimmerman and Davis Vaughan, Software Engineers at Posit, to chat about the life of an open source developer, strategies for navigating complex codebases, and how to leverage AI in data science workflows. Plus, NERDY BOOKS!
In this Hangout, we explore the differences between maintaining established ecosystems like the Tidyverse as well as building new tools like the Positron IDE. Davis and Isabel (and sometimes Libby ) share practical advice for developers, such as the utility of AI for writing tests and “rubber ducking”, and their various approaches to writing accessible documentation that bridges the expert-novice gap.
Resources mentioned in the video and zoom chat: Positron IDE → https://posit.co/positron/ Air (R formatter) → https://posit-dev.github.io/air/ Python Packages Book (free) → https://py-pkgs.org/ R Packages Book (free) → https://r-pkgs.org/ DeepWiki (AI tool mentioned for docs) → https://deepwiki.com/tidyverse/vroom
If you didn’t join live, one great discussion you missed from the zoom chat was about Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere books and the debate between starting with Mistborn vs. The Stormlight Archive. Are you a Cosmere fan?! Which book did you start with? (Libby started with Elantris years before picking up Mistborn Era 1 book 1, but she’d now recommend maybe starting with Warbreaker!)
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Thanks for hanging out with us!
Timestamps: 00:00 Introduction 04:41 “What does a day in the life of an open source dev look like?” 09:43 “What got you into building your own R packages?” 13:00 “Personal tips for working with code bases you’re not familiar with?” 16:35 “How much of what you build is in R/Python vs. lower-level languages?” 19:57 “Does Air work inside code chunks in Positron?” 20:12 “Changing the Python Quarto formatter in Positron without an extension” 22:56 “What do your side projects look like?” 26:40 “How do you approach writing documentation?” 30:55 “What interesting trends in data science are you noticing?” 33:38 “How do you leverage AI in your work?” 37:30 “What are the hexes on Davis’s back wall?” 38:50 “What career advice would you give to someone in a similar position?” 43:45 “How can I be more resilient when things go wrong?” 47:59 “Do you have keyboard preferences?” 49:25 “What is the best way to report bugs in packages?” 50:56 “Open source dev work vs. in-house dev work” 51:50 “Tips for getting started with Positron”
Exploring Positron settings | Isabel Zimmerman & Davis Vaughan | Data Science Lab
The Data Science Lab is a live weekly call. Register at pos.it/dslab! Discord invites go out each week on lives calls. We’d love to have you!
The Lab is an open, messy space for learning and asking questions. Think of it like pair coding with a friend or two. Learn something new, and share what you know to help others grow.
On this call, Libby Heeren is joined by Posit engineers Isabel Zimmerman and Davis Vaughan as they share some of their favorite settings in Positron, a super customizable data science IDE. Come laugh with us as we can’t seem to figure out that VSCode calls rainbow parentheses “bracket pair colorization”
Hosting crew from Posit: Libby Heeren, Isabella Velasquez, Daniel Chen, Isabel Zimmerman, Davis Vaughan
Resources from the hosts and chat: Install Positron: https://positron.posit.co/ Positron docs on keyboard shortcuts: https://positron.posit.co/keyboard-shortcuts.html Nathan Jeffery’s “click to open a .RDS file” keybinding: https://nathan-jeffery.netlify.app/blog/2025-08-26-read-rds-positron/ Positron R pipe setting (paste in browser and it’ll open in Positron): positron://settings/positron.r.pipe One of Dan Chen’s faves, the native tab feature in VSCode + Positron: https://lucasprag.com/posts/underrated-vscode-feature-native-tabs/ The list of RStudio keybindings that you get when you turn on RStudio keybindings in Positron: https://positron.posit.co/migrate-rstudio-keybindings.html Indent rainbow extension: https://open-vsx.org/extension/oderwat/indent-rainbow Rainbow brackets setting (paste in browser and it’ll open in Positron): positron://settings/editor.bracketPairColorization.enabled Setting hierarchy (User vs Workspace settings) in Positron: https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/configure/settings#_settings-precedence Rainbow CSV extension (not by Posit): https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=mechatroner.rainbow-csv Positron +1ePositron, an extension pack for dev and data science, by Garrick Aden-Buie: https://open-vsx.org/extension/grrrck/positron-plus-1-e Publishing from VS Code or Positron: https://docs.posit.co/connect/user/publishing-positron-vscode/ Posit Connect Cloud plans: https://connect.posit.cloud/plans Enter Folder extension that Libby mentions: https://open-vsx.org/extension/xiangda/enter-folder Catppuccin themes (shared by Rory Lawless, and now some of Libby’s favorites!): https://open-vsx.org/extension/Catppuccin/catppuccin-vsc
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Thanks for learning with us!
Timestamps 00:00 Introduction 00:42 Guest Introductions: Isabel and Davis 02:41 Positron Settings overview 04:11 How to enable “Format on Save” 04:34 “How do I open settings in JSON or UI?” 05:10 Auto Save on focus change 08:26 Enabling RStudio key bindings 09:28 “Why doesn’t the cursor move with code edits?” 12:18 User vs. Workspace settings 14:34 Creating and using Profiles 16:13 “Can I use the magrittr pipe with Control+Shift+M?” 17:23 Searching and managing keyboard shortcuts 19:42 Creating custom code snippets 21:31 The Indent Rainbow extension 24:04 Enabling rainbow parenthesis/brackets 25:08 Managing Python and R interpreters 26:32 Rearranging and hiding UI panes 28:04 Rainbow CSV and favorite extensions 29:26 Using the Enter Folder extension 31:05 Understanding the setting hierarchy 32:48 Adding symbols to Quick Open search 36:00 “Is there a way to shift focus using keyboard shortcuts?” 38:04 Modifying keybindings JSON for specific languages 39:20 “How do you find trustworthy extensions?” 43:11 “How can I publish to shinyapps.io from Positron?” 44:03 Deploying with Posit Publisher and Connect Cloud 48:32 Customizing themes with RainGlow extension 50:36 “Is there an Import Data Set wizard in Positron?” 53:01 Conclusion and community resources
Air: A blazingly fast R code formatter - Davis Vaughan, Lionel Henry
In Python, Rust, Go, and many other languages, code formatters are widely loved. They run on every save, on every pull request, and in git pre-commit hooks to ensure code consistently looks its best at all times.
In this talk, you’ll learn about Air, a new R code formatter. Air is extremely fast, capable of formatting individual files so fast that you’ll question if its even running, and of formatting entire projects in under a second. Air integrates directly with your favorite IDEs, like Positron, RStudio, and VS Code, and is available on the command line, making it easy to standardize on one tool even for teams using various IDEs.
Once you start using Air, you’ll never worry about code style ever again!
https://www.tidyverse.org/blog/2025/02/air/ https://github.com/posit-dev/air
Air - A blazingly fast R code formatter (Davis Vaughn & Lionel Henry, Posit) | posit::conf(2025)
Air - A blazingly fast R code formatter
Speaker(s): Davis Vaughan; Lionel Henry
Abstract:
In Python, Rust, Go, and many other languages, code formatters are widely loved. They run on every save, on every pull request, and in git pre-commit hooks to ensure code consistently looks its best at all times.
In this talk, you’ll learn about Air, a new R code formatter. Air is extremely fast, capable of formatting individual files so fast that you’ll question if its even running, and of formatting entire projects in under a second. Air integrates directly with your favorite IDEs, like Positron, RStudio, and VS Code, and is available on the command line, making it easy to standardize on one tool even for teams using various IDEs.
Once you start using Air, you’ll never worry about code style ever again! posit::conf(2025) Subscribe to posit::conf updates: https://posit.co/about/subscription-management/
Introducing Positron, a new data science IDE - posit conf 2024
Positron is a next-generation data science IDE that is newly available to the community for early beta testing. This new IDE is an extensible tool built to facilitate exploratory data analysis, reproducible authoring, and publishing data artifacts. Positron currently supports these data workflows in either or both Python and R and is designed with a forward-looking architecture that can support other data science languages in the future. In this session, learn from the team-building Positron about how and why it is designed the way it is, what will feel familiar or new coming from other IDEs, and whether it might be a good fit for your own work.
Talk by Julia Silge, Isabel Zimmerman, Tom Mock, Jonathan McPherson, Lionel Henry, Davis Vaughan, and Jenny Bryan
Slide deck 1: https://speakerdeck.com/juliasilge/introducing-positron Slide deck 6: https://speakerdeck.com/jennybc/positron-for-r-and-rstudio-users
dplyr 1.1.0 Features You Can’t Live Without - posit::conf(2023)
Presented by Davis Vaughan
Did you enjoy my clickbait title? Did it work? Either way, welcome!
The dplyr 1.1.0 release included a number of new features, such as:
- Per-operation grouping with
.by - An overhaul to joins, including new inequality and rolling joins
- New
consecutive_id()andcase_match()helpers - Significant performance improvements in
arrange()
Join me as we take a tour of this exciting dplyr update, and learn how to use these new features in your own work!
Presented at Posit Conference, between Sept 19-20 2023, Learn more at posit.co/conference.#
Talk Track: Lightning talks. Session Code: TALK-1162
Davis Vaughan | It’s about time | RStudio (2022)
Dealing with date-times is hard. Dealing with date-times without the proper tooling is even harder! clock is an R package that aims to provide comprehensive and safe handling of date-times. It goes beyond the date and date-time types that base R provides, implementing new types for year-month, year-quarter, ISO year-week, and many other date-like formats, all with up to nanosecond precision. In this talk, you’ll see how clock emphasizes “safety first” when manipulating date-times, and how these new date-time types can be used in your own work.
Talk materials are available at https://speakerdeck.com/davisvaughan/2022-rstudio-conf-its-about-time
Session: Lightning Talks
