Positron Assistant fails to start with message Activating MCP extensions...

Positron
1

Immediately after upgrade:
Positron Version: 2026.03.0 build 212
Code - OSS Version: 1.108.0
Commit: f3aae65e0a1a11d39226cd884520f49301daef82
Date: 2026-02-26T04:57:06.999Z
Electron: 39.2.7
Chromium: 142.0.7444.235
Node.js: 22.21.1
V8: 14.2.231.21-electron.0
OS: Darwin arm64 25.3.0

Positron assistant fails to start with message " Activating MCP extensions... [Skip?]
and displays a working bug immediately below that times out after a few minutes.

Running extensions identifies Github CoPilot Chat 0.36.0 as having 2 uncaught errors.
I disabled and then assistant was able to start.
Posting here for information purposes.

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2

I also have observed this bug myself! We are tracking a fix in MCP Autostart is loading indefinitely long · Issue #12259 · posit-dev/positron · GitHub.

I have been able to use "skip" to get unstuck, however.

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I have the same problem. It occurred after I added a positron.md in the project root
Pressing skip makes the IDE unstuck.
It's unclear to me if the information is positron.md is passed to the llm when skip is pressed.