runcode/runcode-server repository overview

⁠OpenVscode Web Server

Overview This project offers a version of Visual Studio Code (VS Code) that runs as a server on a remote machine, accessible via a modern web browser. It’s designed with the upcoming architecture of runcode.io⁠ in mind.

Why This Project? Traditionally, VS Code has been a desktop IDE built using web technologies. Over the years, the community has made significant efforts to adapt it for remote access through web browsers. However, these efforts have often been complex and error-prone, requiring numerous modifications across VS Code’s extensive codebase.

Fortunately, in 2019, the VS Code team began refactoring its architecture to support this remote-access mode. While platforms like Gitpod, RunCode, and GitHub have adopted this new architecture, key elements have not yet been open-sourced. As a result, many in the community still rely on the older, more challenging approach.

At RunCode, we’ve received numerous inquiries about our implementation. To support the community, we decided to share the minimal set of changes necessary for running the latest version of VS Code in a web server environment. This approach provides a more straightforward upgrade path and requires less maintenance.

Getting started To start the server, use the following command:

docker run -it -p 8000:8000 -v "$(pwd):/home/runcode/workspace:cached" runcode/runcode-server

Once the server is running, you can access VS Code in your browser by visiting the URL printed in your terminal.

The scope of this project This project is focused solely on enabling VS Code to run in a web server scenario with minimal modifications. We do not intend to alter or add features to VS Code itself. For feature requests, bug reports, or contributions not related to running VS Code in a web server context, please refer to the Visual Studio Code - Open Source "OSS"⁠⁠ repository.