RKWard is a transparent front-end to the R programming language, a scripting-language with a strong focus on statistics functions. RKWard tries to combine the power of the R language with the ease of use of commercial statistical packages.

RKWard is written in C++ and although it can run in numerous environments, it was designed for and integrates the KDE desktop environment with the Qt (software) libraries.

RKWard's features include

RKWard aims to be easy to use, both for people with deep knowledge of R, and for users who, although they have experience in statistics, are not familiar with the language. The application design offers the possibility of using the graphic tools as well as ignoring many of them and using the program as integrated development environment.

It includes a workspace viewer, which gives access to packages, functions, and variables loaded by R or imported from other sources. It also has a file viewer, and data set editing windows, display of the contents of the variables, help, command log, and HTML output.

Furthermore, it also offers components that help in code editing and direct order execution, such as the script window and the R console, where one can enter complete commands or programs as one would in the original R text interface. Likewise, it provides additional help such as syntax coloring documentation of functions while writing, and includes the feature of capturing graphs or emerging dialogs produced by offering additional options for handling, saving, and exporting them.

In recent versions, RKWard includes integration with RMarkdown such as highlighting, preview, and exporting. It has also included an integration with git for projects version control.

The R package management is carried out through a configuration dialog that allows one to either automatically (because a plug-in requires it) or manually install new packages from the repository's official project, update existing ones, delete them, or upload/download them from the workspace.