PacketLLM

An RStudio gadget that connects an AI assistant to your editor: context-aware, non-blocking, and with direct code insertion and replacement.

PacketLLM runs as an RStudio gadget (Viewer pane or pop-out window). It automatically captures your active selection, open file, and package metadata, so you can ask questions about your actual code without copy-pasting anything.

Key features

Context-aware conversations

The gadget polls the RStudio editor every second and feeds the current context into every message. Four modes control scope:

Mode	What the model sees
Auto	Selection if present, else active file, else project metadata
Focused	Active selection or file only
Project	Active file + `DESCRIPTION` + project file list
None	Only the typed message

Non-blocking API calls

Requests run in a background thread via future and promises. The R console stays fully usable while the model is thinking.

Editor actions

Each code block in a response exposes three buttons:

Copy: puts the code on the clipboard.
Insert: places the code at the captured cursor position in the active source document.
Replace: opens a before/after preview, then validates that the editor selection has not changed since it was captured before writing the replacement. If it has changed, the action is blocked until context refreshes.

Persistent conversations

History, settings, and attached file names are written to tools::R_user_dir("PacketLLM", "data") automatically. Closing the gadget and reopening it, even after restarting RStudio, restores every conversation exactly as it was.

Model presets

Three presets cover common trade-offs between quality and latency:

Preset	Model	Best for
Best	gpt-5.5	Complex reasoning, architecture review
Balanced	gpt-5.4	Day-to-day development
Fast	gpt-5.4-mini	Quick edits, short questions

The model is selectable before the first message in a conversation and locked after that to keep the context consistent.

Assistant behavior presets

Preset	Effect
Default	Practical, precise R-focused responses
Concise	Short explanations, compact code
Code-focused	Runnable code first, minimal prose
Reviewer	Leads with bugs, risks, and CRAN concerns
Custom	Your own system instruction

File attachments

Attach .R, .pdf, .docx, or .txt files as additional context. Attached files are stored in the conversation and included in every subsequent message.

Safe rendering

Assistant output is parsed into typed blocks (text, code, change cards) and rendered as structured HTML. User and model content is never injected as raw HTML. Markdown headings, lists, tables, inline formatting, and LaTeX math (\(...\) and \[...\]) are all supported.

Installation

install.packages("PacketLLM")

Development version from GitHub:

# install.packages("remotes")
remotes::install_github("AntoniCzolgowski/PacketLLM")

Configuration

PacketLLM reads the API key from the OPENAI_API_KEY environment variable. Add it to your user-level .Renviron:

usethis::edit_r_environ()

Then add the line:

OPENAI_API_KEY='your_key_here'

Restart R. Never hardcode keys in scripts or commit them to a repository.

Usage

Launch from the RStudio Addins menu under PacketLLM, or from the console:

library(PacketLLM)
run_llm_chat_app()

The gadget opens in the Viewer pane. Select some code in the editor, switch back to the gadget, and the context status label confirms what was captured. Type a question and press Send.

Typical workflow

Select a function in the editor.
Open PacketLLM (Addins menu or run_llm_chat_app()).
Ask a question. No need to paste the code; it is already in context.
Click Replace on a suggested code block to preview and apply the change directly to the editor.

Multiple conversations

Use New chat to open a separate tab. Each tab has its own context mode, model, attached files, and history. Close tabs with the x on the tab; the last tab cannot be closed.

Package API

The public API exposes the history manager and key helpers for scripting and testing:

# Conversation lifecycle
initialize_history_manager(persist = TRUE)
create_new_conversation()
delete_conversation(id)
reset_history_manager()

# History
add_message_to_active_history(role, content)
get_active_chat_history()
get_conversation_history(id)

# Settings
set_conversation_model(id, model_name)
set_conversation_system_message(id, message)

# Context
capture_rstudio_context(mode = "auto")

# Files
read_file_content(file_path)
parse_pages(pages_str)

Requirements

R >= 4.1.0
RStudio (for editor-aware features; the gadget runs outside RStudio with reduced functionality)
An API key set as OPENAI_API_KEY

Imports: future, httr, pdftools, promises, readtext, rstudioapi, shiny, shinyjs

License

MIT. See LICENSE for details.