Introducing Positron on Amazon SageMaker

Bringing Posit's next-gen data science IDE to Amazon SageMaker Studio

TL;DR

What it is: Positron, Posit's next-generation Python and R IDE, now runs inside Amazon SageMaker as a custom Docker image in public preview, preloaded with R, uv, Quarto, ODBC drivers, and Bedrock-backed Posit Assistant.

Why it matters: SageMaker teams get a polished multilingual IDE running on their own compute, in their own AWS account, under their own IAM roles.

How it works: The Space's execution role authenticates everything, so Posit Assistant, the AWS CLI, boto3, the SDKs, and preinstalled ODBC drivers all work with no keys or setup.

Data science teams on Amazon SageMaker often work with open-source tools in both Python and R. Posit's Positron is a next-generation IDE built for common data workflows. Positron is a polished, multilingual environment with an agentic assistant, multi-console support, a variables pane, a data viewer, and integrated help, designed from the ground up for open-source data science in the world of AI.

Posit and the Amazon SageMaker team have been collaborating on a way to run Positron inside Amazon SageMaker. The result is a custom Docker image that puts Positron one click away in the Studio launcher, with R, Python, Quarto, and Amazon Bedrock–backed Posit Assistant ready to go. This is now in public preview and this post provides an introductory look at Positron on Amazon SageMaker.

Overview

Once the image is made available in an Amazon SageMaker domain, users can create and launch a JupyterLab Space using the image. When the space is launched, Positron starts immediately and is ready to use.

This solution provides:

• Positron, in the browser, running under Amazon SageMaker Studio's managed infrastructure. It looks and behaves like the desktop Positron experience but with the benefit of running directly in Amazon SageMaker with all the benefits of SageMaker Spaces.
• R installation, with common packages installed from Posit Package Manager
• uv for Python environment management
• Quarto for authoring and publishing reproducible documents from both R and Python
• Posit Assistant, backed by Amazon Bedrock. Posit Assistant is an AI assistant that authenticates through the SageMaker execution role, so there are no extra API keys to manage, and the customer chooses which supported foundation model on Bedrock to use.
• Posit's professional ODBC drivers are installed and available for supported connections to a variety of platforms, including Athena and Redshift.

Everything runs inside your AWS account, with your SageMaker compute, under your IAM roles. Your data and credentials stay in your account; the image reaches out only to download packages.

Setup and Installation

Setup follows the standard SageMaker custom-image lifecycle. At a high level, an administrator:

1. Pulls the published Positron image and pushes it to a repository in their own Amazon Elastic Container Registry (ECR). SageMaker only accepts a custom image from an ECR repository in the domain's own region, so this copy is required.
2. Registers it with SageMaker as a custom image and image version, with an app image config.
3. Attaches it to the Studio domain so it appears as a selectable image.

Detailed instructions for installation and configuration can be found in the Admin Guide. Once the image is configured, a user creates a JupyterLab space, selects the Positron image, and launches. The image runs today in Amazon SageMaker Studio and will be coming soon to Amazon SageMaker Unified Studio.

Licensing

Positron as bundled in the Docker image is a Posit commercial product and requires a Posit Workbench Advanced license in order to run. Licensing works through AWS License Manager, the same mechanism that entitles RStudio on SageMaker today. The image includes a licensing client which verifies that a license is available through AWS License Manager. The Admin Guide provides more detail about licensing configuration.

Posit Assistant with Amazon Bedrock

Posit Assistant is connected to Amazon Bedrock out of the box. Because it authenticates through the SageMaker execution role, you don't need to manage separate AI credentials. This provides first-class, AI-enabled data science, backed by industry-leading foundation models and governed by the same IAM and Bedrock model-access controls you already use for everything else in your account.

Connectivity

Once you have access to Positron, you can interact with other AWS resources without configuring credentials. The image supplies a default AWS profile backed by the Space's execution role, so the AWS CLI, boto3, the AWS SDKs, and the built-in AWS Toolkit extension all authenticate automatically. Posit's professional ODBC drivers are preinstalled and registered, so the R odbc and Python pyodbc packages find them with no setup.

Read from Amazon Object Storage (Amazon S3), query Athena or Redshift, and build and deploy models and pipelines from the same session you're writing code in. What you can reach is governed entirely by the Space's execution role.

Next Steps

This is an active collaboration between Posit and the Amazon SageMaker team which is now in Public Preview. If you're a SageMaker customer interested in bringing Positron to your data science teams, visit the Admin Guide to get started. If you need a Posit license, reach out to your Posit representative. If you're an end user looking to get the most out of Positron on SageMaker, the User Guide provides a great starting point.

Resources

Join us at posit:: conf this week, check out our customer stories, and more:

See us at posit::conf:

• Check out the AWS in-person booth or virtual booth depending on your pass. Join the keynote, lunch and learn, and deep dive sessions.
• NASA customer story: Leveraging a combination of Posit Team and Amazon Web Services (AWS), NASA's People Analytics Team provides the insight necessary for strategic workforce planning
• TruDiagnostic customer story: By adopting Posit Workbench with Amazon SageMaker, TruDiagnostic empowered their scientists to control their computational resources with greater efficiency, unifying their R and Python environments.

Learn more about the Posit and AWS partnership and contact us.

About Posit, PBC
Posit, PBC is a leader in open-source and professional software for data science teams using Python and R. Trusted by millions of users and more than half the Fortune 100, Posit builds tools - including Positron, Posit Workbench, Posit Connect and Posit Package Manager - that help data scientists work more efficiently, collaborate seamlessly and share insights securely. Through its Strategic Collaboration Agreement with AWS, signed in September 2025, Posit enables enterprises to migrate to the cloud and operationalize AI on scalable, governed infrastructure. Learn more at https://posit.co.

Frequently Asked Questions

What did Posit and AWS announce at posit::conf? 
Posit and AWS announced the public preview of Positron on Amazon SageMaker. The integration brings Posit's open- source R and Python IDE, Positron, into Amazon SageMaker Studio as a one-click custom image.

Does Positron on Amazon SageMaker support both R and Python? 
Yes. Positron treats R and Python as equals. Both R and Python come installed in the provided image and customers are free to adjust or include additional R and Python versions.

How do teams install Positron on Amazon SageMaker? 
An administrator follows the standard Amazon SageMaker custom-image lifecycle: pull the published Positron image, push it to Amazon Elastic Container Registry (ECR), register it as a SageMaker custom image and version, then attach it to the Studio domain so users can select and launch it.

Is customer data secure with Positron on Amazon SageMaker? 
Yes. Positron on Amazon SageMaker runs inside the customer's own AWS account, on their SageMaker compute and under their IAM roles. Data and credentials do not leave the customer's AWS boundary, and Posit Assistant uses the customer's existing Amazon Bedrock model-access controls.