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 for uses cases like zero trust networks, data science, contractors, and infrequent code contributors.
In Coder, web IDEs are defined as coder_app resources in the template. With our generic model, any web application can be used as a Coder application. For example:
# Add button to open Portainer in the workspace dashboard
# Note: Portainer must be already running in the workspace
resource "coder_app" "portainer" {
agent_id = coder_agent.main.id
slug = "portainer"
display_name = "Portainer"
icon = "https://simpleicons.org/icons/portainer.svg"
url = "https://localhost:9443/api/status"
healthcheck {
url = "https://localhost:9443/api/status"
interval = 6
threshold = 10
}
}
External URLs
Any URL external to the Coder deployment is accessible as a coder_app
. e.g.,
Dropbox, Slack, Discord, GitHub
resource "coder_app" "pubslack" {
agent_id = coder_agent.coder.id
display_name = "Coder Public Slack"
slug = "pubslack"
url = "https://coder-com.slack.com/"
icon = "/icon/slack.svg"
external = true
}
resource "coder_app" "discord" {
agent_id = coder_agent.coder.id
display_name = "Coder Discord"
slug = "discord"
url = "https://discord.com/invite/coder"
icon = "/icon/discord.svg"
external = true
}
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" "main" {
arch = "amd64"
os = "linux"
startup_script = <<EOF
#!/bin/sh
# install code-server
# add '-s -- --version x.x.x' to install a specific code-server version
curl -fsSL https://code-server.dev/install.sh | sh -s -- --method=standalone --prefix=/tmp/code-server
# start code-server on a specific port
# authn is off since the user already authn-ed into the coder deployment
# & is used to run the process in the background
/tmp/code-server/bin/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 the latest version
USER root
RUN curl -fsSL https://code-server.dev/install.sh | sh
USER coder
# pre-install VS Code extensions
RUN code-server --install-extension eamodio.gitlens
# directly start code-server with the agent's startup_script (see above),
# or use a process 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.main.id
slug = "code-server"
display_name = "code-server"
url = "http://localhost:13337/?folder=/home/coder"
icon = "/icon/code.svg"
subdomain = false
healthcheck {
url = "http://localhost:13337/healthz"
interval = 2
threshold = 10
}
}
VS Code Web
VS Code supports launching a local web client using the code serve-web
command. To add VS Code web as a web IDE, you have two options.
-
Install using the vscode-web module from the coder registry.
module "vscode-web" { source = "registry.coder.com/modules/vscode-web/coder" version = "1.0.14" agent_id = coder_agent.main.id accept_license = true }
-
Install and start in your
startup_script
and create a correspondingcoder_app
resource "coder_agent" "main" { arch = "amd64" os = "linux" startup_script = <<EOF #!/bin/sh # install VS Code curl -Lk 'https://code.visualstudio.com/sha/download?build=stable&os=cli-alpine-x64' --output vscode_cli.tar.gz mkdir -p /tmp/vscode-cli tar -xf vscode_cli.tar.gz -C /tmp/vscode-cli rm vscode_cli.tar.gz # start the web server on a specific port /tmp/vscode-cli/code serve-web --port 13338 --without-connection-token --accept-server-license-terms >/tmp/vscode-web.log 2>&1 & EOF }
code serve-web
was introduced in version 1.82.0 (August 2023).You also need to add a
coder_app
resource for this.# VS Code Web resource "coder_app" "vscode-web" { agent_id = coder_agent.coder.id slug = "vscode-web" display_name = "VS Code Web" icon = "/icon/code.svg" url = "http://localhost:13338?folder=/home/coder" subdomain = true # VS Code Web does currently does not work with a subpath https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/issues/192947 share = "owner" }
JupyterLab
Configure your agent and coder_app
like so to use Jupyter. Notice the
subdomain=true
configuration:
data "coder_workspace" "me" {}
resource "coder_agent" "coder" {
os = "linux"
arch = "amd64"
dir = "/home/coder"
startup_script = <<-EOF
pip3 install jupyterlab
$HOME/.local/bin/jupyter lab --ServerApp.token='' --ip='*'
EOF
}
resource "coder_app" "jupyter" {
agent_id = coder_agent.coder.id
slug = "jupyter"
display_name = "JupyterLab"
url = "http://localhost:8888"
icon = "/icon/jupyter.svg"
share = "owner"
subdomain = true
healthcheck {
url = "http://localhost:8888/healthz"
interval = 5
threshold = 10
}
}
If you cannot enable a wildcard subdomain, you can configure the template to run Jupyter on a path. There is however security risk running an app on a path and the template code is more complicated with coder value substitution to recreate the path structure.
This is a community template example.
RStudio
Configure your agent and coder_app
like so to use RStudio. Notice the
subdomain=true
configuration:
resource "coder_agent" "coder" {
os = "linux"
arch = "amd64"
dir = "/home/coder"
startup_script = <<EOT
#!/bin/bash
# start rstudio
/usr/lib/rstudio-server/bin/rserver --server-daemonize=1 --auth-none=1 &
EOT
}
# rstudio
resource "coder_app" "rstudio" {
agent_id = coder_agent.coder.id
slug = "rstudio"
display_name = "R Studio"
icon = "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d0/RStudio_logo_flat.svg"
url = "http://localhost:8787"
subdomain = true
share = "owner"
healthcheck {
url = "http://localhost:8787/healthz"
interval = 3
threshold = 10
}
}
If you cannot enable a wildcard subdomain, you can configure the template to run RStudio on a path using an NGINX reverse proxy in the template. There is however security risk running an app on a path and the template code is more complicated with coder value substitution to recreate the path structure.
This is a community template example.
Airflow
Configure your agent and coder_app
like so to use Airflow. Notice the
subdomain=true
configuration:
resource "coder_agent" "coder" {
os = "linux"
arch = "amd64"
dir = "/home/coder"
startup_script = <<EOT
#!/bin/bash
# install and start airflow
pip3 install apache-airflow
/home/coder/.local/bin/airflow standalone &
EOT
}
resource "coder_app" "airflow" {
agent_id = coder_agent.coder.id
slug = "airflow"
display_name = "Airflow"
icon = "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/de/AirflowLogo.png"
url = "http://localhost:8080"
subdomain = true
share = "owner"
healthcheck {
url = "http://localhost:8080/healthz"
interval = 10
threshold = 60
}
}
File Browser
Show and manipulate the contents of the /home/coder
directory in a browser.
resource "coder_agent" "coder" {
os = "linux"
arch = "amd64"
dir = "/home/coder"
startup_script = <<EOT
#!/bin/bash
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/filebrowser/get/master/get.sh | bash
filebrowser --noauth --root /home/coder --port 13339 >/tmp/filebrowser.log 2>&1 &
EOT
}
resource "coder_app" "filebrowser" {
agent_id = coder_agent.coder.id
display_name = "file browser"
slug = "filebrowser"
url = "http://localhost:13339"
icon = "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/matifali/logos/main/database.svg"
subdomain = true
share = "owner"
healthcheck {
url = "http://localhost:13339/healthz"
interval = 3
threshold = 10
}
}
SSH Fallback
If you prefer to run web IDEs in localhost, you can port forward using
SSH or the Coder CLI port-forward
sub-command. Some web IDEs
may not support URL base path adjustment so port forwarding is the only
approach.