Channels are locations where conda looks for, downloads, and installs packages. Navigator is capable of connecting to a few important conda package hosting providers— Anaconda.org, Anaconda.com, and Anaconda’s enterprise on-prem Package Security Manager—in order to access channels. Navigator can also connect to individual channels that are privately hosted or saved in your own computer files.

When managing channels in Navigator, you can refer to a channel either by its full URL or by its name. For example, let’s say you want to look for packages on the “conda-forge” channel of Anaconda.org. Either of these channel variations will look for packages in the same place:

  • By name: conda-forge
  • By URL: https://conda.anaconda.org/conda-forge

Referring to a channel by its name requires that the channel alias be set. By default, it is set to https://conda.anaconda.org/. For more information about channel aliases, see channel_alias: Set a channel alias in the conda documentation.

Most channels on Anaconda.org are completely free to use. However, Anaconda does provide mirrors of four channels that are subject to Anaconda’s Terms of Service: main, r, msys2, and anaconda. For more information about Anaconda’s TOS, see our TOS FAQ.

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Adding a channel in Navigator

To add a premium channel to Navigator with the channels manager, you must either supply the token inside the URL (https://repo.anaconda.cloud/t/<TOKEN>/repo/<ORG-NAME>/<CHANNEL>) or be connected to the Package Security Manager (Cloud) organization that contains the channel.

  1. Click Channels to open the channels manager.

  2. Click Add.

  3. Enter the channel name or URL and press Enter (Windows)/Return (Mac).

    URLs must begin with https:// when entering them into the channels manager.

  4. Click Update channels.

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Adding a channel in your .condarc file

Since Navigator is built on the conda package manager, you can also add channels to navigator using conda’s configuration file: .condarc.

  1. To open the .condarc file in Navigator, open Preferences and then click Configure conda. For more information on editing configuration files, see Editing Navigator and conda configuration files.

  2. To add channels in the .condarc file, list them under the channels: setting, similar to the following example:

    channels:
    - conda-forge
    - defaults

Navigator searches the channels list in order, starting at the top.

For more information on editing your .condarc file, see Using the .condarc conda configuration file and Settings in the conda documentation.

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Deleting a channel

  1. Click Channels to open the channels manager.
  2. Click Delete beside the channel name.
  3. Click Update channels.

For more information on conda channels, see Channels.