Self-contained workspace builds

Currently, there are two ways in which the workspace boot sequence can occur:

1. Remotely: Coder uploads assets (including the Coder agent, code-server, and JetBrains Projector) from coderd to a workspace.
2. Self-contained: workspaces control the boot sequence internally; the workspace downloads assets from coderd. This requires curl to be available in the image.

Beginning with v1.30.0, the default is self-contained workspace builds, though site managers can toggle this feature off and opt for remote builds instead.

Coder plans to deprecate remote workspace builds in the future.

To toggle self-contained workspace builds:

1. Log into Coder.
2. Go to Manage > Admin.
3. On the Infrastructure page, scroll down to Workspace container runtime.
4. Under Enable self-contained workspace builds, flip the toggle to On or Off as required.
5. Click Save workspaces.

Build errors are typically more verbose for remote builds than with self-contained builds.

Known issues

At this time, Coder does not support certificate injection with self-contained workspace builds.