rstudioapi

You can install the released version of rstudioapi from CRAN or the development version from GitHub.

To install the CRAN version:

install.packages("rstudioapi")

To install the development version using devtools:

# install.packages("devtools")
devtools::install_github("rstudio/rstudioapi")

Use rstudioapi::findFun() to retrieve an RStudio function. This method will throw an error if the function does not exist. You can also specify a version requirement to ensure the function is available in the target RStudio version.

# Throws an error if the function does not exist
rstudioapi::findFun("viewer")

# Check version requirement with findFun
rstudioapi::findFun("viewer", 0.99)

# Check version requirement with hasFun
rstudioapi::hasFun("viewer", 0.99)

Use rstudioapi::isAvailable() to check if the RStudio API is currently accessible. This returns a logical value (TRUE or FALSE). You can optionally pass a version requirement string to check for a minimum version.

To ensure RStudio is available and halt execution if it is not, use rstudioapi::verifyAvailable().

# Returns T/F
rstudioapi::isAvailable()

# Returns error if not available
rstudioapi::verifyAvailable()

# Optional argument allows you to specify version requirement
rstudioapi::isAvailable("0.99")
rstudioapi::verifyAvailable("0.99")

The rstudioapi package is designed to never be attached to your search path. Always prefix function calls with rstudioapi::.

To execute an RStudio function by name, use rstudioapi::callFun(). Note that callFun will raise an error if RStudio is not running or if the function is not found. To avoid errors, check for the function's existence first using rstudioapi::hasFun().

# Call an rstudio function
rstudioapi::callFun("viewer", "http://localhost:8080")

# Safe pattern: check if function exists before calling
if (rstudioapi::hasFun("viewer")) {
  rstudioapi::callFun("viewer", "http://localhost:8080")
} else {
  browseURL("http://localhost:8080")
}