Katie Horne

Technical Writer

Tyler Crandall

Product Manager

<p>We’re pleased to announce the release of Coder v1.29, which includes support for remote Docker providers, support for FUSE devices inside CVM-enabled workspaces, the ability to provision workspace providers via CLI, and Projector improvements.</p>

<h2>Remote Docker providers</h2>

<p>Coder now supports the deployment of Docker providers. This is useful if you are running Coder for Docker, and you would like a separate Docker host to be the workspace provider, rather than have workspaces provisioned to the same host running <code>coderd</code> for scalability or resiliency purposes.</p>


Adding a new Docker provider via the Coder admin UI

<h2>Support for FUSE devices inside CVM-enabled workspaces</h2>

<p>Coder now supports the creation of custom filesystems using Linux FUSE. Once you’ve toggled on the Enable FUSE device setting on CVM-enabled workspaces, Coder will mount a <code>/dev/fuse</code> device into the workspace at build time. FUSE devices can be used for things like mounting specialized filesystems (e.g., Google Cloud Storage buckets), to your workspace.</p>

<h2>Workspace provider provisioning via CLI</h2>

<p>In addition to provisioning workspace providers via the admin section of the Coder UI, you can now provision them via the Coder CLI. This was requested by customers where admins would like to operate primarily using the CLI. </p>

<h2>Projector improvements</h2>

<p>We’ve upgraded the version of Projector in use from version 1.5 to <a href="https://github.com/JetBrains/projector-server/releases/tag/v1.6.0">version 1.6</a>, which fixed bugs (including an issue rendering Markdown) and provided a significant improvement to performance.</p>

<h2>Coder on DigitalOcean</h2>

<p>We’ve added Coder to the DigitalOcean marketplace (with additional providers, such as AWS, Google Cloud, and Vultr, to follow).</p>

<p>Our image includes a single VM image with Coder installed, which will then provision workspaces with Docker. For more details, check out <a href="https://coder.com/blog/coder-is-on-the-digitalocean-marketplace">our blog post</a>.</p>

<h2>UI updates, bug fixes, and more</h2>

<p>For a full list of everything included in v1.29, please see <a href="https://coder.com/docs/coder/latest/changelog/1.29.0">the changelog</a>.</p>


We’re pleased to announce the release of Coder v1.29.

Coder v1.29 has been released

<p>Coder 1.28 is now available for installation or upgrade. Features include TUN device support, improved autostart settings, and onboarding improvements. </p>

<h2>TUN device support with CVM workspaces (+Tailscale)</h2>

<p>We&#39;ve introduced support for TUN devices inside CVMs. Once you&#39;ve enabled this feature, Coder workspaces can run VPNs or developer tools (such as <a href="https://tailscale.com/blog/coder/">Tailscale</a> and <a href="https://www.telepresence.io/">Telepresence</a>) that leverage virtual network devices.</p>

<h2>Workspace autostart times are now exposed</h2>

<p>Coder admins have requested the ability to view the workspace auto-start times set by users. We’ve added a new field called autostart_at to the users API endpoint to provide you with this information. </p>

<h2>New users are now prompted to link their Git accounts on first sign-in</h2>

<p>Because a linked Git account provides the best experience in Coder and is a part of the flow, we now prompt users to link their Git accounts when they sign in for the first time. This improves the onboarding experience for new Coder users. </p>


<h2>Single access URL for distributed deployment</h2>

<p>We’ve introduced the ability to use a single access URL for both your primary deployment and your satellite deployments. This means that all of your users access Coder with a single URL, rather than using separate URLs assigned to satellites. Coder will route users to the appropriate satellite based on their geographic location. This eliminates any confusion regarding which access URL should be used by whom.</p>

<h2>Authenticated users can now retrieve OIDC access token via CLI</h2>

<p>Users have requested the ability to obtain their OIDC access token from the CLI if they have already authenticated with Coder. You can now do this using <code>coder tokens get-oidc-access-token</code>. This is a quality of life improvement to avoid having to re-authenticate multiple times.</p>

<h2>Resources</h2>

<ul>
<li><a href="https://coder.com/docs/coder/latest/changelog/1.28.0">1.28 changelog</a></li>
<li><a href="https://coder.com/docs/coder/v1.28/setup/upgrade">Upgrade documentation</a></li>
<li><a href="https://coder.com/trial">Try Coder</a> or <a href="https://coder.com/demo">Request a demo</a></li>
</ul>


Coder 1.28 is now available for installation or upgrade. Features include TUN device support, improved autostart settings, and onboarding improvements. 


Coder v1.28 has been released

<p>We’re pleased to announce the release of Coder v1.14.0!</p>

<p>This release includes new features like the ability to run system-level applications in your environments, account dormancy, environment variables, UI improvements, security updates, and bug fixes.</p>

<h2>Container-Based Virtual Machines (CVMs)</h2>

<p>Coder now allows you to create environments capable of running system-level applications like Docker, Docker Compose, Kubernetes, or systemd. We call this variant of our standard environment a <a href="https://coder.com/docs/environments/cvms#container-based-virtual-machine%20(CVM)">Container-based Virtual Machine</a>. When you choose this option, your environments behave like virtual machines with all of the image, security, and performance properties of typical containers.</p>


<h2>Account Dormancy</h2>

<p>Coder now flags accounts that haven’t been used in 90 days as dormant. <a href="https://coder.com/docs/admin/account-dormancy">Dormant accounts</a> do not count toward your license seats.</p>


<p>You can also set a deletion threshold. After this threshold, Coder will automatically delete dormant accounts (e.g. if you set a deletion threshold of 30 days, Coder will delete accounts that haven’t been used in 120 days).</p>

<h2>Coder Environment Variables</h2>

<p>Coder injects a standard set of <a href="https://help.coder.com/hc/en-us/articles/360059484653-Working-with-CODER-Environment-Variables">environment variables</a> that allow you to access contextual information about your Coder environment.</p>


This demo app demonstrates how Coder environment variables can be used to add additional utilities to a workspace. 

<h2>UI Improvements</h2>

<p>Admin-level users (such as site managers) will notice that we’ve redesigned all of the <strong>Admin</strong> pages.</p>


<p>We’ve also redesigned the toggles in the Coder UI, the Progressive Web App icon, and the <strong>Rebuild Environment</strong> icon.</p>


<p>Other UI changes include the displaying of SSH information (as well as links to educational material) on the environment overview page and improved code blocks.</p>


<h2>Security Updates, Bug Fixes, and Other Under-the-Hood Improvements</h2>

<p>We’ve enhanced security around the use of API keys within your environments and fixed an upstream SSH server <a href="https://groups.google.com/g/golang-announce/c/CqSxrm7Mpr0/m/BGVPu5DJAgAJ">DoS vulnerability</a>.</p>


This release includes new features like the ability to run system-level applications in your environments, account dormancy, environment variables, UI improvements, security updates, and bug fixes.

Coder v1.14: Container-Based Virtual Machines, Account Dormancy, Environment Variables

Erik Bledsoe

Camilla Lever

Head of Talent and HR

<p>When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, we had just moved into our new office space. We went from trying to remember where the plates were to trying to ensure that all of our employees had everything they needed to work from home productively, comfortably, and safely for an unknown period. We needed new Zoom licenses, new equipment, and to address what seemed to be hundreds of other details.</p>

<p>We were also in the final stages of securing our Series B funding.</p>

<p>These events put our core beliefs and company culture to the test. </p>

<h2>From a Centralized Office to a Distributed Workforce</h2>

<p>The three founders of Coder met online when they were 13. The three founded Coder from their bedrooms, thousands of miles apart. As the concept solidified, they were very passionate about having a home base. That&#39;s why they all moved from three different parts of the world to Austin to create Coder. They had researched and visited several other cities, but Austin offered the resources and culture essential for a tech startup as well and having an overall good vibe. Austin felt like home for Coder.</p>

<p>From the earliest days, we&#39;ve worked to create a culture that is both fun yet serious, hard-working yet laid back, and collaborative yet capable of letting each individual shine. Despite our status as a startup, we&#39;re slow to fill open positions because we are looking for fit and ability to contribute to that culture in addition to the skillset needed for the job.</p>

<p>To that end, we felt strongly that being in Austin was essential -- we wanted people who were Austin-based or were willing to relocate. To us, our physical office seemed vital to maintaining that culture. Conversations, both work-related and personal, happened in the kitchen, in the conference rooms, and even over Slack despite the fact that the participants were sitting next to each other.</p>

<p>As with so many other startups, we spent so much time working that our social and work interactions mingled freely. We would leave the office as a group for planned social outings together. It’s cliche, but we felt like family.</p>

<p>Then came COVID.</p>

<p>The founders and our team worked hard to develop a strategy for maintaining the Coder culture and the bonds we&#39;d developed. We turned afternoon social outings into virtual golf tournaments. We started a daily Good Morning Coffee Chat over Zoom to start the day. We took our in-person watercooler conversations to Slack. It took a while, but we adjusted to the new normal and we were thrilled to see that the culture we worked so hard to build survived the transition.</p>

<p>We were still Coder, just distributed.</p>

<h2>Growing Our Distributed Team</h2>

<p>On April 15, we announced that we had received Series B funding. This meant that we had both the resources and the mandate to grow our team.</p>

<p>Our first hires afterward were Austin-based, but (like the rest of us) would be working remotely until we could return to the office.</p>

<p>As more and more people joined the Coder team, we quickly realized that the culture we developed was strong enough that it could thrive even without the initial interactions in the office. So, we decided to be more open to fully remote employees for our next hires, and we cast the widest recruitment net to date.</p>

<p>The effects were instantaneous and dramatic, especially when it came to attracting a more diverse applicant pool, especially for our technical positions.</p>

<h2>How Our Diverse Workforce Changed Coder for the Better</h2>

<p>The challenges many tech companies face when it comes to recruiting and maintaining a diverse workforce are well-documented and do not need to be rehashed here.</p>

<p>However, we feel that Coder has several advantages in terms of attracting and retaining such candidates. Our founders have impressed upon me, as the Head of HR, their desire to have a diverse workforce. &quot;With diversity comes new ideas, and with unity, those ideas turn into a better reality,&quot; says co-founder John Andrew Entwistle. We are a small, young company that&#39;s free from the baggage of the past&#39;s intolerant actions and policies; instead, we focus on implementing policies that reflect the different needs of our employees. Our parental leave policy, for instance, goes well above the federally mandated requirement by providing paid leave because we understand that starting or adding to a family is stressful enough without having to worry about reduced income as well.</p>

<p>Over time, our morning catch-up calls began to look and sound different. The faces revealed a wider range of ages and the accents were more varied. The discussions themselves have changed, reflecting the variety of lived experiences of our team.</p>

<p>And, as we learn more about our coworkers, we are discovering the many faces that diversity can take, many of which are not immediately obvious.</p>

<p>A few months ago, we created an open Slack channel focused on diversity, with nearly half of the company joining voluntarily. We ask questions, share news, and discuss ideas for raising awareness across the company (for example, what is Coder doing when it comes to providing accessible design?). We don&#39;t want to just talk about these issues, however, so we are actively implementing programs that began as discussions on the channel.</p>

<p>The thing about diversity is that once it is recognized and embraced, it has a way of becoming ingrained in all that we do as a company. We planted the seeds early by defining what we wanted Coder culture to be. However, our initial thoughts on how to make this happen — being in the same place — changed, and with that, we saw an increase in diversity and a strengthening, not a weakening, of our company as a whole.</p>


Becoming a remote-based company strengthened our culture

Diversity Blog Card

How the Pandemic Changed Our Diversity Recruitment Strategy

<p>We&#39;re pleased to announce the release of Coder Enterprise v1.10.</p>

<p>This release includes improvements to the existing functionality, as well as new features like secrets, which allows you to store and retrieve passwords and other sensitive or user-specific information, and the automatic creation of .gitconfig files, which allow you to set configuration variables that affect the look and feel of Git.</p>

<p>For instructions on updating an existing installation, please visit <a href="https://enterprise.coder.com/docs/updating-coder">our documentation site</a>.</p>

<h2>Improvements to the Coder Enterprise User Interface</h2>

<p>We’ve implemented several new interfaces for the following Coder Enterprise functions:</p>

<ul>
<li>Creating and editing a service</li>
<li>Importing an image</li>
<li>Creating and editing an environment</li>
<li>Creating and managing your organization settings</li>
</ul>

<p>Previously, many of these screens, which asked for user input, were modal (or pop-up) windows. They are now full-screen windows that provide for a more fluid, seamless user experience that makes the process of performing the above tasks faster and easier.</p>

<p>As an example, here’s what you can expect to see the next time you create a new environment:</p>


The new Create Environment view

<p>Here’s what you can expect to see when creating a new organization:</p>


The new Create Organization view

<h2>Creating and Using Secrets via the Coder CLI</h2>

<p>If you use sensitive strings or user-specific values, such as passwords and client IDs/secrets, in your development projects, Coder Enterprise now leverages Kubernetes’ <a href="https://enterprise.coder.com/v1.10.0/docs/secrets">secrets</a> store so that that you can create objects to store these values securely. Currently, you can create and manage secrets using the Coder CLI, which is automatically injected into your environments on creation/rebuild for convenience. Admins can also set secrets on behalf of developers. For example, an admin can set up a script to set individuals’ database credentials through the CLI.</p>

<h2>Automatic Creation of <code>.gitconfig Files</code></h2>

<p>If you create a new environment for which there isn’t a <code>.gitconfig</code> file defined, Coder Enterprise will <a href="https://enterprise.coder.com/v1.10.0/docs/create-an-environment#gitconfig-files">automatically create one</a> for you that has been prefilled with your name and email address. The <code>.gitconfig</code> file allows you to set the configuration variables that affect the look and feel of Git.</p>


.gitconfig file generated by Coder Enterprise

<h2>Metrics</h2>

<p>We recently announced the addition of metrics to Coder Enterprise, which offered end-users insight into which environments and features they most utilized (administrators gain the same insight across all end-users). Since then, we have implemented various fixes to improve the performance of this feature and its overall user experience.</p>


Viewing Metrics in Coder Enterprise

We're pleased to announce the release of Coder Enterprise v1.10.

This release includes improvements to the existing functionality, as well as new features like secrets, which allows you to store and retrieve passwords and other sensitive or user-specific information, and the automatic creation of .gitconfig files, which allow you to set configuration variables that affect the look and feel of Git.

Announcing the release of Coder Enterprise v1.10

Coder Enterprise v1.10

<p>We&#39;re pleased to announce the release of Coder Enterprise v1.9. This release includes new features, as well as the improvements we&#39;ve made to the existing functionality.</p>

<p>For instructions on updating an existing installation, please visit <a href="https://enterprise.coder.com/v1.9.0/docs/updating-coder">our documentation site</a>.</p>

<h2>Viewing Coder Enterprise Usage Metrics</h2>

<p>Coder Enterprise now includes <a href="https://enterprise.coder.com/v1.9.0/docs/metrics">metrics</a>, which allow you to track the time spent working in a specific environment, as well time spent using certain Coder features (e.g., Coder vs. Terminal vs. SSH vs. Sync). Admin users can view this data on a per-organization or per-user basis, offering insight into which environments and which features are most helpful to end-users.</p>


Metrics Screen in Coder 1.9

<h2>Adding Services for Use with Your Primary Development Environment</h2>

<p>Coder Enterprise now allows you to add <a href="https://enterprise.coder.com/v1.9.0/docs/services">services</a>, which are sidecar containers that run alongside your primary development environment.</p>

<p>Services are especially useful for databases, API servers, or other stand-alone applications where the setup process may be more complex and time-consuming for individual users to complete on an ad hoc basis. For example, if you were to include a MySQL database in your environment, you would have to reference the Docker image and make sure that all of the right dependencies are in place.</p>

<p>Once you define a service for your Coder Enterprise deployment, it is available to all of the users in your organization (each user will receive their own instance of the service).</p>


Services allow you to create sidecar containers

<h2>Personalizing Your Coder Enterprise Environment</h2>

<p>Though Coder Enterprise makes it easy to standardize and set up matching environments for your projects, no two people have the same preferences when it comes to their development environments. If you store your preferences in <a href="https://enterprise.coder.com/v1.9.0/docs/dotfiles">dotfiles</a> and you have them hosted with the Git provider of your choice, you can provide the URI to Coder, and Coder will automatically apply your preferences and run any install scripts included. The changes you make will persist even when rebuilding your environment!</p>


Persist your environment customizations using dotfiles

<h2>Other Improvements Include…</h2>

<ul>
<li>Improving the stability of the Remote IDE, as well as its connect/reconnect behavior. We’ve also removed chips tagging IDEs as “beta” in select browsers</li>
<li>Performance improvements, which you will see especially when working with the modal windows with forms</li>
<li>Fixing an issue with the propagation of the <code>TERM</code> environment variable to shell sessions.</li>
</ul>

<h2>We Want to Hear From You!</h2>

<p>We’ve made our <a href="http://roadmap.coder.com/">roadmap</a> publicly available. If you have any feedback or suggestions on how we can improve or what we could add to Coder Enterprise, please let us know using the <strong>Submit Idea</strong> button on that page.</p>


Version 1.9 brings several new features including services.

AI-native Development

Secure Environments for 2,500+ Developers

Katie Horne

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Coder v1.29 has been released

Coder v1.28 has been released

Coder v1.14: Container-Based Virtual Machines, Account Dormancy, Environment Variables

How the Pandemic Changed Our Diversity Recruitment Strategy

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Coder Enterprise v1.9

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