Channels

Anaconda Desktop lets you view and prioritize channels to manage your package installations.

Most channels on Anaconda.org are completely free to use. However, Anaconda does provide mirrors of three default channels that are subject to Anaconda’s Terms of Service: main, msys2 (Windows only), and r (deprecated).

Viewing channels

You can access channel management from multiple locations:

Although you can access channel management from multiple locations, any changes you make apply to all environments, not just the one you’re currently working in.

Environments page

On the Environments page, select Channels:

Manual environment creation page

On the Create Environment: Manual page, select Channels:

Environment details page

On an environment’s details page, select Actions, then select Manage Channels:

Selecting Channels will open the Channels page, which displays a list of your channels.

Adding a channel

From the Channels page, select Add Channel to add a new channel to the bottom of your channels list.

When managing channels in Desktop, 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

If you belong to an organization in Anaconda Platform (Cloud), you must supply your access token inside the channel URL to authenticate yourself and prove you are allowed to access the channels: https://repo.anaconda.cloud/t/<TOKEN>/repo/<ORG_ID>/<CHANNEL>. For more information, see Authenticating to Anaconda in the Anaconda Platform (Cloud) guide.

Setting channel priority

Channel priority can be established by adjusting the order of the channels listed in the table.

You can establish channel priority in multiple ways:

Drag and drop

Select beside a channel to drag it to a new position.

The Actions menu

Select Actions on a channel row, then select Move up or Move down to adjust the channel priority.

Selecting Set as priority moves the channel to the top of the list.

Deleting a channel

To delete a channel, select Actions on a channel row, then select Delete.

Select Delete again to confirm you want to delete the channel.

Additional resources

• For an introduction to channels, see What is a channel?
• For detailed instructions on viewing, configuring, and managing channels, see Channels.
• For more information about how channels are structured and how conda uses them, see the official conda channels documentation.
• For more information on editing your .condarc file, see Using the .condarc conda configuration file and Settings in the conda documentation.