code-server

Coder publishes code-server, the browser build of VS Code, under the MIT licence. The code-server module runs it once per account on a managed Linux machine or Mac. You install code-server on the machine from Coder, at one pinned version of its standalone release.

System	Machines that run it
Linux	amd64 and arm64
macOS	Apple silicon and Intel
Windows	none; the tab is greyed out

In the mainland edition, the release comes from the USTC mirror, mirrors.ustc.edu.cn, which keeps only Coder's latest release. The installer checks the pinned version against its SHA-256, and takes the mirror's current release, checked by HTTPS alone, when the pinned one is gone.

Add an instance

1. On the code-server tab of the Modules page, select Install.
2. Select Configure. The Instances section opens under the tab, and its top line names the installed version.
3. Select Add instance.
4. Fill Account with the name of an account on the machine.
5. Optional: change the Port. The first instance gets 8443.
6. Select Apply code-server.

Each instance runs as its account, with its settings and extensions in code-server's own folders under the account's home. Its row reads running or not running, with a reason when the machine reports one. A refused apply names its code, listed under code-server in troubleshooting.

Extensions and AI tools

The editor installs extensions from Open VSX, code-server's own gallery, where Claude Code and Codex are published. Point a machine's AI tools at the gateway switches the tools of every account that runs code-server here.

Open it from a client

Each running instance is a row under Web on the Services page, titled code-server with the account in parentheses. A client whose permission on the hub's Clients page includes Web pages on that machine opens it with Open on its Web page. The forwarder then sets a login cookie in that browser for seven days; after it expires, select Open again.

Ports

For each instance, the agent runs a forwarder that listens at 127.0.0.1 on the instance's Port. code-server itself listens on a socket only its account and root open. The port is a number from 1024 to 65535, one per instance on the machine, apart from the hub's port 8443. The hub publishes it as the instance's Web entry, and Add instance offers the port after the highest one in use.

A development server or any other program started in the editor's terminal stays unpublished, because the agent connects clients to its machine's published ports alone. To reach one from a client, select Declare service on the Services page. Declare a Web or Port entry with the machine's address and the program's port. The hub connects to that address directly, so the program must listen on an address the hub reaches, such as 0.0.0.0.