revealjs: Simple Browser preview resets to title slide on re-render (VSCode)

[maikol-solis]

Bug description

When previewing a RevealJS presentation via the Simple Browser in VSCode, navigating away from the title slide and then saving/editing the .qmd file causes the preview to reset to slide 1 (title slide), losing the current slide position.

Steps to reproduce

1. Open a .qmd file with format: revealjs in VSCode.
2. Run Preview. Simple Browser opens on the title slide.
3. Navigate forward to any slide (e.g., slide 3).
4. Edit the .qmd file and save.
5. Quarto re-renders, and the Simple Browser goes to slide 1.

Actual behavior

The preview reloads to slide 1 (title slide) after every re-render, regardless of which slide was active before the save.

Expected behavior

The Simple Browser should preserve the current slide position after a hot-reload/re-render, so the author remains on the slide they were editing.

Your environment

• Vscode 1.110.1
• MacOS: Sequioa 15.7.3

[cscheid]

This is a bug in quarto-cli; I'll transfer the issue over.

[cscheid]

Can you give a simple .qmd document that you see experiencing this problem? We have some logic to prevent this from happening and I want to make sure that we catch what you're seeing.

[maikol-solis]

Hi! @cscheid. For me, it happens with something as basic as this.

Screen.Recording.2026-03-10.at.04.25.15.mov

---
title: "Test Lorem Ipsum"
format:
    revealjs:
      theme: default
filters: []
---

## Slide 1

![](https://fastly.picsum.photos/id/1003/800/450.jpg?hmac=gM976ClVt75S7NEptI-Ilh8dTQCaGYEauswyokEuqoU){fig-align="center"}

::: {.notes}
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit.
:::

## Slide 2

![](https://fastly.picsum.photos/id/612/800/450.jpg?hmac=Y6a2pGUCs25uZVA1khuK6XKuTRS6tZkhatxMSa2Ss-I){fig-align="center"}

::: {.notes}
Sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.
:::

## Slide 3

![](https://fastly.picsum.photos/id/705/800/450.jpg?hmac=FsmN7Jra_j8gtpKMNzOf9Bktxl9wxARQEvkAmfzyY0E){fig-align="center"}

::: {.notes}
Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris.
:::

[mcanouil]

FWIW, render-on-save is the feature for this:

• via Positron/VSCode settings
• via YAML editor.render-on-save: true

This being said, I cannot reproduce this preview issue on VSCode.
Do you have some particular settings enabled, maybe the one I mentioned?

Could you provide the output of quarto check? Maybe upgrade to 1.8 or the 1.9 RC.