Install air with Homebrew, MacPorts, Nix, scoop, winget

Project links

• Homepage
• Repository
• Upstream docs
• Package manager page

Commands and aliases

• air

Project history

The project is developed under the posit-dev GitHub organization and its README describes it as an R formatter and language server written in Rust. The project documentation presents a small CLI surface, a configuration file, and editor integration rather than a broad framework.

Air's own acknowledgements tie its design to earlier R and non-R tooling: styler for R style-guide formatting, rust-analyzer for language-server expectations, and Biome for language-agnostic syntax-tree and formatter infrastructure.

Adoption history

Air's installation story quickly grew beyond source builds: the README documents standalone installers for macOS, Linux, and Windows, plus uv, Homebrew, Pixi, conda-forge, and mise paths. The Homebrew and conda-forge packages are explicitly described as community-maintained, which is a useful signal that packaging arrived alongside broader R-tooling interest rather than only inside Posit's own installer channel.

The public GitHub releases show active 0.x development through 2025 and 2026, including 0.10.0 published on 2026-06-19. In package-manager terms it is still a young tool, but it already has the familiar shape of a modern formatter binary: fast install scripts, a single `air` executable, and optional editor integration.

How it is used

Typical CLI use is `air format path/to/file.R`, either from a globally installed binary or via one-shot execution through uv, Pixi, or mise. For editor users, Air also runs as a language server, so the same package can serve both batch formatting and editor-on-save workflows.

Configuration is intentionally local and simple: the documented names are `air.toml` and `.air.toml`, keeping it in the same mental category as formatter configs such as `.prettierrc`, `ruff.toml`, or `biome.json`.

Why package nerds care

Air matters to package nerds because it is part of the wider trend of single-purpose, native-speed formatter binaries replacing slower language-hosted developer tools. It brings that trend to R while still acknowledging the established styler/tidyverse style-guide lineage.

The package is also interesting because Homebrew is not the sole distribution story: the official README calls out uv, Pixi, conda-forge, mise, and standalone installers. That makes it a compact example of a modern developer CLI trying to meet users across several package-manager cultures.

Timeline

• 2025: Public 0.x releases and Posit documentation establish Air as an R formatter and language server.
• 2025-10-21: GitHub release 0.8.0 published.
• 2026-06-19: GitHub release 0.10.0 published.

Related projects

• styler is the R formatter explicitly credited as prior art and inspiration.
• Biome, rust-analyzer, Prettier, and Ruff are cited by Air as non-R influences for formatter and language-server design.

Sources

• https://api.github.com/repos/posit-dev/air/releases?per_page=5
• https://github.com/posit-dev/air
• https://posit-dev.github.io/air
• https://posit-dev.github.io/air/configuration.html