The Sparkly button on the Positron Source Control panel has stopped working

smithjd · July 15, 2026, 4:55pm

I love Positron! Having AI write commit messages has been a great improvement that has come with Positron adoption. However, it has mysteriously stopped working

When I click the button nothing happens.

While Claude Code can do the job, it produces commit messages that are much more verbose and takes more effort than just pushing a button.

Has anybody else encountered this? Is there a solution or a strategy for solving this inconvenience?

jonathan · July 15, 2026, 5:10pm

This should work! Can you provide a little more info?

What version of Positron are you using?
What model provider are you using with Posit Assistant?
Did it stop working after a Positron update, or on its own?
Do you see any errors or warnings in the Posit Assistant logs? (in the Output panel, pull down the drop list of channels and choose Posit Assistant)

smithjd · July 15, 2026, 5:34pm

Thanks for a quick follow-up!

Here's the Positron version information:

Positron Version: 2026.08.0 build 96
Code - OSS Version: 1.124.0
Commit: fd9c70152c2210f0cf30f3c368db960dd5dfe367
Date: 2026-07-14T15:13:40-06:00
Electron: 42.2.0
Chromium: 148.0.7778.97
Node.js: 24.15.0
V8: 14.8.178.14-electron.0
OS: Darwin arm64 25.5.0

I have Claude for Mac running: Version 1.21459.0 (f7518f). And Positron assistant is being very helpful (except for diagnosing this particular problem! )

I think it stopped working after a Positron update, but I'm not exactly sure.

Here's what I see in the Output panel for Posit Assistant:

2026-07-15 09:43:36.682 [info] Attempting migration
2026-07-15 09:43:36.682 [info] Posit Assistant is now active!
2026-07-15 09:43:36.692 [info] [local-providers] Registered Ollama and LM Studio with Positron config dialog
2026-07-15 09:43:37.536 [info] aiExcludes: using default patterns as 'ask' rules (user has not customized)

jonathan · July 15, 2026, 9:24pm

Posit Assistant can't connect to Claude for Mac... do you need to sign in to Anthropic with Posit Assistant? It's possible it was previously working via Copilot. Run the Configure Language Model Providers command and select Anthropic. Are you signed in there?

smithjd · July 15, 2026, 10:37pm

Yes, I'm signed in (surprise: wasn't before) but the button still doesn't return anything.

jonathan · July 15, 2026, 10:51pm

There are a few settings you need to enable. Can you double check that they're enabled, and select a model for generating messages if needed? Docs here (back of napkin quality):

github.com/posit-dev/positron

Docs: AI-generated git commit

opened 07:22PM - 02 Jul 26 UTC

sharon-wang

documentation area: assistant

Add docs for the new AI-generated git commit functionality added in 2026.07: - i…ssue: https://github.com/posit-dev/positron/issues/14169 - PR: https://github.com/posit-dev/positron/pull/14606 See https://positpbc.slack.com/archives/C09RG87EF29/p1783201119670219 for more info about how the feature works. --- ### WIP notes: AI-generated git commit messages Positron can suggest a commit message based on your current changes. When the feature is active, a sparkle icon ✨ appears in the Source Control commit message input box. Click it to stream a generated message into the box. #### Prerequisites - You must be signed in to a language model provider (e.g. GitHub Copilot, or another configured provider). - Both the ai.enabled and git.suggestions.enabled settings must be on. Both default to true, so no setup is needed out of the box. #### What it uses If you have staged changes, the message is generated from those only. If nothing is staged, all changes in the repository are used. Very large diffs are truncated per-file to keep the prompt manageable. #### Model selection By default, a fast/cheap model tier is used (the same tier used for other lightweight AI tasks in Positron). The sparkle button tooltip shows which model is selected, e.g. "Generate Commit Message (Model: default)". #### To change the model: Run the command `Git: Select Git Suggestions Model` from the Command Palette. This opens a picker and writes your choice to the git.suggestions.model setting. Or set git.suggestions.model in settings.json directly with a list of patterns tried in order, e.g.: ``` "git.suggestions.model": ["haiku", "flash"] ``` Patterns are matched case-insensitively against available model names. The first pattern that matches a model you have access to is used. #### Coexisting with GitHub Copilot If both GitHub Copilot and Positron's AI features are enabled, both contribute a button to the commit input box. You can use the dropdown to choose between them. The Positron entry shows the configured model (or "default"). #### Disabling the feature Set `git.suggestions.enabled` to false to hide the button without affecting other AI features.

smithjd · July 16, 2026, 6:27pm

OK, now it's working! Thanks, Jonathan! Your hints led me to figure out what was going on. Looking at the "Configure Language Model Providers" as you suggested revealed the issue once I poked around a bit.

My Anthropic API key had expired but I didn't notice since the Posit assistant and Claude code in the IDE were both working fine. BUT, I also had to sign out from Posit AI (which also had an expired API key) for the sparkly icon to actually work. Suggesting to me that if you have more than one (failing) provider, an upstream fail prevents a downstream model from being triggered (or some such).

I have to say that the AI-generated commit messages are really good. I'm no longer tempted to just say something useless like "Quarto page updated."

system · July 23, 2026, 6:27pm

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