Publishing from RStudio

RStudio IDE
1

I was pleased that the latest version of RStudio (2026.01.1 Build 403) allowed publishing to Connect Cloud. However, when attempting to do so, I got the following error:

Error in rsconnect::applications(): ! The applications() function is not supported for Posit Connect Cloud accounts.

Any idea what's wrong?

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2

According to ChapGPT:
Nothing is actually “wrong” with your setup. You’ve likely hit a current limitation/bug in the publishing workflow for Posit Connect Cloud when used from RStudio.

What’s happening

When the IDE’s Publish button runs, it internally calls functions from the rsconnect package. One of the steps tries to call:

rsconnect::applications()

That function is used for standard Posit Connect servers to list existing deployed apps so the IDE can ask whether to update or create a new one.

However, Connect Cloud doesn’t support that API endpoint , so the call fails with:

The applications() function is not supported for Posit Connect Cloud accounts

This exact issue has been reported by users running RStudio 2026.01.1 Build 403, the same version you mentioned.

Why it appears now

Support for publishing to Connect Cloud was only recently added to rsconnect (via functions like connectCloudUser()), and the IDE integration is still catching up.

So the IDE tries to use an API call that exists for Connect but not for Connect Cloud .

Things to try (workarounds)

  1. Update rsconnect
install.packages("rsconnect")
  1. The Connect Cloud support is evolving quickly.
  2. Reconnect the account explicitly
rsconnect::connectCloudUser()
  1. Deploy programmatically Instead of the IDE button:
rsconnect::deployApp()
  1. Remove old deployment metadata Sometimes the IDE gets confused if a project previously deployed somewhere else.Delete the folder:
./rsconnect/

My suspicion

Given the timing and the exact error message, this is likely an IDE integration bug rather than anything wrong in your project .

:white_check_mark: Quick diagnostic question:

When you attempt the publish, are you doing it via the Publish button in RStudio, or by calling rsconnect::deployApp() directly?

That distinction will tell us whether the problem is strictly the IDE workflow.