Help pane: Add package index/explorer

System details:

Positron and OS details:

Positron Version: 2025.09.0 build 41
Code - OSS Version: 1.102.0
Commit: fd2186c301ecb6913b9614e22fe22c5423c6acdc
Date: 2025-08-11T03:42:41.022Z
Electron: 35.6.0
Chromium: 134.0.6998.205
Node.js: 22.15.1
V8: 13.4.114.21-electron.0
OS: Darwin arm64 24.6.0

Session details:

R 4.4.0

Describe the issue:

In Positron can you only view documentation through [console] commands (https://positron.posit.co/help-pane.html) whereas in RStudio you can click in a panel to get that. Is that true? I’m just looking to help an end user who mentioned [they] work in Positron and misses that from RStudio.

Steps to reproduce the issue:

Open the help pane and notice there is not "package index" to explore:

Expected or desired behavior:

Compared to RStudio and the Reference > Package section from the help home page:

Which allows the discovery of packages

and discovery of functions within pacakges

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

Start by reviewing the existing Help pane and the linked help-pane documentation, then compare its console-based workflow with RStudio’s Reference > Package section. No implementation files or tests are named; the feature is done when users can discover packages and browse functions within packages from the Help pane.