Coder is an open source platform for creating and managing developer workspaces

on your preferred clouds and servers.

By building on top of common development interfaces (SSH) and infrastructure tools (Terraform), Coder aims to make the process of**provisioning** and**accessing** remote workspaces approachable for organizations of various sizes and stages of cloud-native maturity.

Coder workspaces are represented with Terraform. But, no Terraform knowledge is

required to get started. We have a database of pre-made templates built into the

product.

<palign="center">

<imgsrc="images/hero-image.png">

<imgsrc="./images/providers-compute.png">

</p>

-[About Coder](./about.md#about-coder)

-[Why remote development](./about.md#why-remote-development)

-[Why Coder](./about.md#why-coder)

-[What Coder is not](./about.md#what-coder-is-not)

-[Comparison: Coder vs.[product]](./about.md#comparison)

-[Quickstart](./quickstart.md)

-[Creating your first template and workspace](./quickstart.md#creating-your-first-template-and-workspace)

-[Modifying templates](./quickstart.md#modifying-templates)

-[Templates](./templates.md)

-[Manage templates](./templates.md#manage-templates)

-[Persistent and ephemeral

resources](./templates.md#persistent-and-ephemeral-resources)

-[Parameters](./templates.md#parameters)

-[Workspaces](./workspaces.md)

-[Create workspaces](./workspaces.md#create-workspaces)

-[Connect with SSH](./workspaces.md#connect-with-ssh)

-[Editors and IDEs](./workspaces.md#editors-and-ides)

-[Workspace lifecycle](./workspaces.md#workspace-lifecycle)

-[Updating workspaces](./workspaces.md#updating-workspaces)

Coder workspaces don't stop at compute. You can add storage buckets, secrets, sidecars

and whatever else Terraform lets you dream up.

[Learn more about managing infrastructure.](./templates.md)

You can use any Web IDE ([code-server](https://github.com/coder/code-server),[projector](https://github.com/JetBrains/projector-server),[Jupyter](https://jupyter.org/), etc.),[JetBrains Gateway](https://www.jetbrains.com/remote-development/gateway/),[VS Code Remote](https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/remote/ssh-tutorial) or even a file sync such as[mutagen](https://mutagen.io/).

<palign="center">

<imgsrc="./images/ide-icons.svg"height=72>

</p>

Migrating from local developer machines to workspaces hosted by cloud services

is an increasingly common solution for developers[^1] and organizations[^2]

alike. There are several benefits, including:

-**Increased speed:** Server-grade compute speeds up operations in software

development, such as IDE loading, code compilation and building, and the

running of large workloads (such as those for monolith or microservice

applications)

-**Easier environment management:** Tools such as Terraform, nix, Docker,

devcontainers, and so on make developer onboarding and the troubleshooting of

development environments easier

-**Increase security:** Centralize source code and other data onto private

servers or cloud services instead of local developer machines

-**Improved compatibility:** Remote workspaces share infrastructure

configuration with other development, staging, and production environments,

reducing configuration drift

-**Improved accessibility:** Devices such as lightweight notebooks,

Chromebooks, and iPads can connect to remote workspaces via browser-based IDEs

or remote IDE extensions

The key difference between Coder v2 and other remote IDE platforms is the added

layer of infrastructure control. This additional layer allows admins to:

- Support ARM, Windows, Linux, and macOS workspaces

- Modify pod/container specs (e.g., adding disks, managing network policies,

setting/updating environment variables)

- Use VM/dedicated workspaces, developing with Kernel features (no container

knowledge required)

- Enable persistent workspaces, which are like local machines, but faster and

hosted by a cloud service

Coder includes[production-ready templates](../examples/templates) for use with AWS EC2,

Azure, Google Cloud, Kubernetes, and more.

- Coder is not an infrastructure as code (IaC) platform. Terraform is the first

IaC_provisioner_ in Coder, allowing Coder admins to define Terraform

resources as Coder workspaces.

- Coder is not a DevOps/CI platform. Coder workspaces can follow best practices

for cloud service-based workloads, but Coder is not responsible for how you

define or deploy the software you write.

- Coder is not an online IDE. Instead, Coder supports common editors, such as VS

Code, vim, and JetBrains, over HTTPS or SSH.

- Coder is not a collaboration platform. You can use git and dedicated IDE

extensions for pull requests, code reviews, and pair programming.

- Coder is not a SaaS/fully-managed offering. You must host

Coder on a cloud service (AWS, Azure, GCP) or your private data center.

Next:[Templates](./templates.md)

[^1]: alexellis.io:[The Internet is my computer](https://blog.alexellis.io/the-internet-is-my-computer/)

[^2]: slack.engineering:[Development environments at Slack](https://slack.engineering/development-environments-at-slack)

Or run a**temporary deployment** with dev mode (all data is in-memory and destroyed on exit):

coder server --dev

1. Clone the`coder` repository:

```

1. Navigate into the`coder` folder. Coder requires a non-`localhost` access URL

for non-Docker-based examples; if you have a public IP or a domain/reverse

proxy, you can provide this value before running`docker-compose up` to

start the service:

```

Otherwise, you can start the service:

```

Alternatively, if you would like to start a**temporary deployment**:

```

1. Follow the on-screen instructions to create your first template and workspace

We publish self-contained .zip and .tar.gz archives in[GitHub releases](https://github.com/coder/coder/releases). The archives bundle`coder` binary.

1. Download the[release archive](https://github.com/coder/coder/releases) appropriate for your operating system

1. Unzip the folder you just downloaded, and move the`coder` executable to a location that's on your`PATH`

```

mv coder /usr/local/bin

1. Start a Coder server

To run a**temporary deployment**, start with dev mode (all data is in-memory and destroyed on exit):

```

coder server --dev

To run a**production deployment** with PostgreSQL:

```

CODER_PG_CONNECTION_URL="postgres://<username>@<host>/<database>?password=<password>" \

coder server

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