quarto-dev / quarto-dev/quarto

Clicking on .qmd file opens duplicate text tab if already open in Visual mode

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#917 6 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

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bug visual-editor vscode
Dominant language
TypeScript
Stars
645
Forks
62
Avg merge
17h 42m
Merged PRs (30d)
13

Description

Bug description

When a .qmd file is already open and in Visual mode, single-clicking the same file in Explorer opens the file a second time in Source mode instead of focusing the existing Visual editor tab. This happens regardless of the mode in the YAML header (editor: visual or editor: source)

Clicking on a .qmd file that is not already open will correctly open in the mode specified (visual or source).

Steps to reproduce
  1. Open a qmd file
    
  2. Switch to Visual mode if it is in Source mode
    
  3. In Explorer, click on the same file
    
Actual behavior

The .qmd file is opened a second time in a second tab, this time in Source mode.

Expected behavior
  1. Explorer click on open file should set focus to existing Visual editor tab.
    
  2. No duplicate tab should open.
    
Your environment

This happens on both Positron and VSCode.

Positron Version: 2026.02.0 (user setup) build 139
Code - OSS Version: 1.106.0
Commit: https://github.com/posit-dev/positron/commit/4b472e9bf40ca88f886fe9c7fcfbb9ee702fccd0
Date: 2026-01-29T05:07:35.343Z
Electron: 37.7.0
Chromium: 138.0.7204.251
Node.js: 22.20.0
V8: 13.8.258.32-electron.0
OS: Windows_NT x64 10.0.26200

VSCode Version: 1.109.4 (user setup)
Commit: c3a26841a84f20dfe0850d0a5a9bd01da4f003ea
Date: 2026-02-16T15:35:57.932Z
Electron: 39.3.0
ElectronBuildId: 13313481
Chromium: 142.0.7444.265
Node.js: 22.21.1
V8: 14.2.231.22-electron.0
OS: Windows_NT x64 10.0.26200

Contributor guide

No contributing guide indexed for this repository

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

Reproduce the duplicate-tab behavior by opening a .qmd file in Visual mode, then selecting it again from Explorer, in both Positron and VSCode. Trace the handling of Explorer clicks for already-open .qmd files and compare it with the YAML header mode; done means the existing Visual editor tab receives focus without opening a Source tab.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
vscode
Domain
devtools
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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