Configuring web IDEs

By default, Coder workspaces allow connections via:

• Web terminal
• SSH (plus any SSH-compatible IDE)

It's common to also let developers to connect via web IDEs.

In Coder, web IDEs are defined as coder_app resources in the template. This gives you full control over the version, behavior, and configuration for applications in your workspace.

code-server

code-server is our supported method of running VS Code in the web browser. A simple way to install code-server in Linux/MacOS workspaces is via the Coder agent in your template:

# edit your template
cd your-template/ 
vim main.tf

resource "coder_agent" "dev" {
    arch          = "amd64"
    os            = "linux"
    startup_script = <<EOF
    #!/bin/sh
    # install and start code-server
    curl -fsSL https://code-server.dev/install.sh | sh
    code-server --auth none --port 13337
    EOF
}

For advanced use, we recommend installing code-server in your VM snapshot or container image. Here's a Dockerfile which leverages some special code-server features:

FROM codercom/enterprise-base:ubuntu

# install a specific code-server version
RUN curl -fsSL https://code-server.dev/install.sh | sh -s -- --version=4.3.0

# pre-install versions
RUN code-server --install-extension eamodio.gitlens 

# directly start code-server with the agent's startup_script (see above),
# or use a proccess manager like supervisord

You'll also need to specify a coder_app resource related to the agent. This is how code-server is displayed on the workspace page.

resource "coder_app" "code-server" {
  agent_id = coder_agent.dev.id
  name     = "VS Code"
  url      = "http://localhost:13337/?folder=/home/coder"
  icon     = "/code.svg"
}

VNC Desktop

You may want a full desktop environment to develop with/preview specialized software.

Workspace requirements:

• VNC server (e.g. tigervnc)
• VNC client (e.g. novnc)

Installation instructions will vary depending on your workspace's operating system, platform, and build system.

Coder-provided VNC clients are on the roadmap (#2106).

As a starting point, see the desktop-container community template. It builds & provisions a Dockerized workspace with the following software:

• Ubuntu 20.04
• TigerVNC server
• noVNC client
• XFCE Desktop

JetBrains Projector

JetBrains Projector is a JetBrains Incubator project which renders JetBrains IDEs in the web browser.

It is common to see latency and performance issues with Projector. We recommend using Jetbrains Gateway whenever possible (also no Template edits required!)

Workspace requirements:

• JetBrains server
• IDE (e.g IntelliJ IDEA, pyCharm)

Installation instructions will vary depending on your workspace's operating system, platform, and build system.

As a starting point, see the projector-container community template. It builds & provisions a Dockerized workspaces for the following IDEs:

• CLion
• pyCharm
• DataGrip
• IntelliJ IDEA Community
• IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate
• PhpStorm
• pyCharm Community
• PyCharm Professional
• Rider
• Rubymine
• WebStorm
• ➕ code-server (just in case!)

Custom IDEs and applications

As long as the process is running on the specified port inside your resource, you support any application.

# edit your template
cd your-template/ 
vim main.tf

resource "coder_app" "portainer" {
  agent_id      = coder_agent.dev.id
  name          = "portainer"
  icon          = "https://simpleicons.org/icons/portainer.svg"
  url           = "http://localhost:8000"
  relative_path = true
}

The full coder_app schema is described in the Terraform provider.

# update your template
coder templates update your-template