posit-dev / posit-dev/positron

If I try to open a table in the data explorer and it fails because `pandas` isn't installed, it should prompt me with a button to install it

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#13,636 2 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

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area: data explorer enhancement lang: python
Dominant language
TypeScript
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Merged PRs (30d)
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Description

System details:

Positron and OS details:

Positron Dev Version: 2026.06.0 build 0
Code - OSS Version: 1.111.0
Commit: Unknown
Date: Unknown
Electron: 39.6.0
Chromium: 142.0.7444.265
Node.js: 22.22.0
V8: 14.2.231.22-electron.0
OS: Darwin arm64 25.5.0

Session details:

Describe the issue:

When using the Connections pane, if I try to open a table in the data explorer and it fails because pandas isn't installed, it should prompt me with a button to fix it.

Image

Steps to reproduce the issue:

  1. Don't have pandas installed
  2. Try to open a table in the connections pane with the data explorer. You can create a new python connection with the database ~/.vscode-oss-dev/User/globalStorage/state.vscdb
  3. Notification should appear

Expected or desired behavior:

It would be nice if there was a button to click to do this.

I had to use the Packages pane and manually look it up. While doing that, Positron appears to crash, but I think that might have been unrelated.

Were there any error messages in the UI, Output panel, or Developer Tools console?

I couldn't find anything interesting in the logs.

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by reproducing the failure from the Connections pane with a Python connection and an uninstalled pandas package, then trace the data explorer notification and the existing Packages pane lookup. Done means the notification offers a button that starts the pandas installation flow and the table can be opened afterward.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
pandas, python, typescript
Domain
data, frontend
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
3/5
Estimated time
1-2 days
Activity status
Quiet
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
58/100

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