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arf

Popularity 85 Updated Development & Build

Modern R console with syntax highlighting and fuzzy search

homebrewauto-collected

Installation

Homebrew
brew install arf

Install with Homebrew.

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🐶 arf console

Alternative R Frontend

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arf is a cross-platform R console written in Rust.

[!WARNING] arf is under active development. The configuration file format and history file format are not yet stable and may change without notice in future versions.

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Features

  • Single binary with no runtime dependencies
  • Cross-platform: Linux, macOS, and Windows
  • rig integration — switch R versions with --with-r-version or :switch within a session
  • Vi and Emacs editing modes
  • Multiline editing with proper indentation
  • Auto-matching brackets and quotes (with smart skip-over)
  • Tab completion for R objects, functions, and file paths inside strings
  • fzf-style history search with Ctrl+R; import from radian or .Rhistory
  • Customizable keyboard shortcuts (Alt+- → <- , Alt+P → | )
  • Command status indicator (shows error symbol when previous command failed)
  • Fuzzy help browser with :help or :h — search across all installed packages
  • Tree-sitter based syntax highlighting with customizable colors
  • Reprex mode with optional auto-formatting via Air
  • Shell mode (:shell to enter, :r to return)
  • Configurable prompts and colors with placeholders ({version}, {cwd}, {status})
  • SQLite-backed persistent history with import/export support
  • IPC server for AI agent and CI integration
  • Headless mode for non-interactive environments (CI, background jobs)

Installation

Pre-built Binaries

Pre-built binaries are available from GitHub Releases.

#### Shell Installer (Linux/macOS)

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -LsSf https://github.com/eitsupi/arf/releases/latest/download/arf-console-installer.sh | sh