rpkgkit

Overview

rpkgkit provides utilities for creating and maintaining R packages. The functions support common development tasks such as managing standalone scripts, maintaining NEWS.md, modernizing R source, configuring package infrastructure, and maintaining README files.

Most functions detect the active file context in RStudio and Positron (2026.10.1 or later), so a file path can often be omitted.

Installation

Install the released version from CRAN:

install.packages("rpkgkit")

Install the development version from r-universe:

install.packages(
  "rpkgkit",
  repos = c("https://wanglabcsu.r-universe.dev", "https://cloud.r-project.org")
)

Or install from GitHub (recommended):

pak::pak("WangLabCSU/rpkgkit")

Guides

Detailed, copy-ready examples are organized by task in the package website:

• rpkgkit standalone scripts: import standalone helpers, manage their metadata, and discover or create standalone files.
• Code Convertion: qualify package calls, check source code, modernize syntax, and convert integer or non-ASCII literals.
• Edit NEWS: create, update, display, and validate NEWS.md entries.
• Package Setup & Maintenace: configure package infrastructure, vendor permissively licensed code, and manage ignore files.
• Tools for README & Documentation: create README translations and insert or generate badges.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the following people and projects:

• The authors of the pedant package — Jacob Scott, Christopher T. Kenny, and Sebastian Lammers — whose code is included (under MIT license) in R/vendor-pedant.R.
• The authors of the pkgdev package — Diego Hernangómez — whose code is included (under MIT license) in R/vendor-pkgdev.R.
• All contributors and users who have reported issues, suggested features, or helped improve the package.