# Quickstart Follow this guide to get your first Coder development environment running in under 10 minutes. This guide covers the essential concepts and shows you how to create your first workspace and run VS Code from it. ## What You'll Build In this quickstart, you'll: * ✅ Install Coder server * ✅ Create a **template** (blueprint for dev environments) * ✅ Launch a **workspace** (your actual dev environment) * ✅ Connect from your favorite IDE ## Understanding Coder: 30-Second Overview Before diving in, here are the core concepts that power Coder explained through a cooking analogy: | Component | What It Is | Real-World Analogy | | -------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | ------------------------------ | | **You** | The engineer/developer/builder working | The head chef cooking the meal | | **Templates** | A Terraform blueprint that defines your dev environment (OS, tools, resources) | Recipe for a meal | | **Workspaces** | The actual running environment created from the template | The cooked meal | | **Users** | A developer who launches the workspace from a template and does their work inside it | The people eating the meal | **Putting it Together:** Coder separates who *defines* environments from who *uses* them. Admins create and manage Templates, the recipes, while developers use those Templates to launch Workspaces, the meals. ## Prerequisites * A machine with 2+ CPU cores and 4GB+ RAM * 10 minutes of your time
## Install Docker and Setup Permissions 1. Install Docker: ```bash curl -sSL https://get.docker.com | sh ``` For more details, visit: * [Linux instructions](https://docs.docker.com/desktop/install/linux-install/) * [Mac instructions](https://docs.docker.com/desktop/install/mac-install/) 2. Assign your user to the Docker group: ```shell sudo usermod -aG docker $USER ``` 3. Run `newgrp` to activate the groups changes: ```shell newgrp docker ``` You might need to log out and back in or restart the machine for changes to take effect. 1. Install Docker: ```bash curl -sSL https://get.docker.com | sh ``` For more details, visit: * [Linux instructions](https://docs.docker.com/desktop/install/linux-install/) * [Mac instructions](https://docs.docker.com/desktop/install/mac-install/) 2. Assign your user to the Docker group: ```shell sudo usermod -aG docker $USER ``` 3. Run `newgrp` to activate the groups changes: ```shell newgrp docker ``` You might need to log out and back in or restart the machine for changes to take effect. If you plan to use the built-in PostgreSQL database, ensure that the [Visual C++ Runtime](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-US/cpp/windows/latest-supported-vc-redist#latest-microsoft-visual-c-redistributable-version) is installed. 1. [Install Docker](https://docs.docker.com/desktop/install/windows-install/).
## Install & Start Coder Install the `coder` CLI to get started: 1. Install Coder: ```shell curl -L https://coder.com/install.sh | sh ``` * For standalone binaries, system packages, or other alternate installation methods, refer to the [latest release on GitHub](https://github.com/coder/coder/releases/latest). 2. Start Coder: ```shell coder server ``` 1. Install Coder: ```shell curl -L https://coder.com/install.sh | sh ``` * For standalone binaries, system packages, or other alternate installation methods, refer to the [latest release on GitHub](https://github.com/coder/coder/releases/latest). 2. Start Coder: ```shell coder server ``` If you plan to use the built-in PostgreSQL database, ensure that the [Visual C++ Runtime](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-US/cpp/windows/latest-supported-vc-redist#latest-microsoft-visual-c-redistributable-version) is installed. 1. Use the [`winget`](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/package-manager/winget/#use-winget) package manager to install Coder: ```powershell winget install Coder.Coder ``` 2. Start Coder: ```shell coder server ``` Coder will attempt to open the setup page in your browser. If it doesn't open automatically, go to [http://localhost:3000](http://localhost:3000). * If you get a browser warning similar to `Secure Site Not Available`, you can ignore the warning and continue to the setup page. If your Coder server is on a network or cloud device, or you are having trouble viewing the page, locate the web UI URL in Coder logs in your terminal. It looks like `https://..try.coder.app`. It's one of the first lines of output, so you might have to scroll up to find it.
## Initial Setup 1. **Create your admin account:** * Username: `yourname` (lowercase, no spaces) * Email: `your.email@example.com` * Password: Choose a strong password You can also choose to **Continue with GitHub** instead of creating an admin account. The first user that signs in is automatically granted admin permissions. ![Welcome to Coder - Create admin user](/docs/images/screenshots/welcome-create-admin-user.png)
## Create your First Template and Workspace If you use an AI coding assistant, the [coder-templates](https://github.com/coder/registry/blob/main/.agents/skills/coder-templates/SKILL.md) agent skill can guide you through creating and customizing templates with best practices built-in. Templates define what's in your development environment. Let's start simple: 1. Click **"Templates"** → **"New Template"** 2. **Choose a starter template:** | Starter | Best For | Includes | | ----------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------ | | **Docker Containers** (Recommended) | Getting started quickly, local development, prototyping | Ubuntu container with common dev tools, Docker runtime | | **Kubernetes (Deployment)** | Cloud-native teams, scalable workspaces | Pod-based workspaces, Kubernetes orchestration | | **AWS EC2 (Linux)** | Teams needing full VMs, AWS-native infrastructure | Full EC2 instances with AWS integration | 3. Click **"Use template"** on **Docker Containers**. Note: running this template requires Docker to be running in the background, so make sure Docker is running! 4. **Name your template:** * Name: `quickstart` * Display name: `quickstart doc template` * Description: `Provision Docker containers as Coder workspaces` 5. Click **"Save"** ![Create template](/docs/images/screenshots/create-template.png) **What just happened?** You defined a template — a reusable blueprint for dev environments — in your Coder deployment. It's now stored in your organization's template list, where you and any teammates in the same org can create workspaces from it. Let's launch one.
## Launch your Workspace 1. After the template is ready, select **Create Workspace**. 2. Give the workspace a name and select **Create Workspace**. 3. Coder starts your new workspace: ![getting-started-workspace is running](/docs/images/screenshots/workspace-running-with-topbar.png)*Workspace is running*
## Connect your IDE Select **VS Code Desktop** to install the Coder extension and connect to your Coder workspace. After VS Code loads the remote environment, you can select **Open Folder** to explore directories in the Docker container or work on something new. ![Changing directories in VS Code](/docs/images/screenshots/change-directory-vscode.png) To clone an existing repository: 1. Select **Clone Repository** and enter the repository URL. For example, to clone the Coder repo, enter `https://github.com/coder/coder.git`. Learn more about how to find the repository URL in the [GitHub documentation](https://docs.github.com/en/repositories/creating-and-managing-repositories/cloning-a-repository). 2. Choose the folder to which VS Code should clone the repo. It will be in its own directory within this folder. Note that you cannot create a new parent directory in this step. 3. After VS Code completes the clone, select **Open** to open the directory. 4. You are now using VS Code in your Coder environment!
## Success! You're Coding in Coder You now have: * **Coder server** running locally * **A template** defining your environment * **A workspace** running that environment * **IDE access** to code remotely ### What's Next? Now that you have your own workspace running, you can start exploring more advanced capabilities that Coder offers. * [Try Coder Agents](/docs/@v2.33.6/ai-coder/agents/getting-started/), the chat interface and API for delegating development work to coding agents in your Coder deployment. * [Read about managing Workspaces for your team](/docs/@v2.33.6/user-guides/workspace-management/) * [Read about implementing monitoring tools for your Coder Deployment](/docs/@v2.33.6/admin/monitoring/) ## Troubleshooting ### Cannot connect to the Docker daemon > Error: Error pinging Docker server: Cannot connect to the Docker daemon at > unix:///var/run/docker.sock. Is the docker daemon running? 1. Install Docker for your system: ```shell curl -sSL https://get.docker.com | sh ``` 2. Set up the Docker daemon in rootless mode for your user to run Docker as a non-privileged user: ```shell dockerd-rootless-setuptool.sh install ``` Depending on your system's dependencies, you might need to run other commands before you retry this step. Read the output of this command for further instructions. 3. Assign your user to the Docker group: ```shell sudo usermod -aG docker $USER ``` 4. Confirm that the user has been added: ```console $ groups docker sudo users ``` * Ubuntu users might not see the group membership update. In that case, run the following command or reboot the machine: ```shell newgrp docker ``` ### Can't start Coder server: Address already in use ```shell Encountered an error running "coder server", see "coder server --help" for more information error: configure http(s): listen tcp 127.0.0.1:3000: bind: address already in use ``` 1. Stop the process: ```shell sudo systemctl stop coder ``` 2. Start Coder: ```shell coder server ```