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Create a Workspace

Create a Workspace​

You can create a workspace either from the Devsy CLI or through the Devsy desktop application. A workspace can be created from a Git repository, a local path or a Docker container (e.g. golang:latest).

Upon successful creation, Devsy will make the development container available through the ssh host WORKSPACE_NAME.devsy. Alternatively, Devsy can automatically open the workspace in a locally installed IDE, such as VS Code or Intellij.

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A workspace is defined through a devcontainer.json. If Devsy can't find one, it will automatically try to guess the programming language of your project and provide a fitting template.

Via Devsy Desktop Application​

Navigate to the 'Workspaces' view and click on the 'Create' button in the title to open the create-workspace wizard. The wizard walks through five steps:

  1. Provider: Select an initialized provider to host the workspace. Cannot be changed later. If no initialized provider exists, the wizard prompts you to add one (navigates to 'Providers' > 'Add').
  2. Source: Pick one of the Quick Start templates or enter a custom source (Git URL, image, or local path). Use 'Show advanced options' to optionally set a Workspace Folder (a subfolder within the source to use as the workspace root).
  3. IDE: Choose an IDE to open the workspace with. Optional; the default is none.
  4. Review: Optionally override the auto-derived Workspace Name and confirm the configuration.
  5. Launch: Devsy creates the workspace and streams progress. The workspace is launched in the chosen IDE on success.
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Under the hood, the Desktop Application will call the CLI command devsy workspace up REPOSITORY

Note

You can set the location of your devsy home by passing the --home={home_path} flag, or by setting the env var DEVSY_HOME to your desired home directory.

This can be useful if you are having trouble with a workspace trying to mount to a windows location when it should be mounting to a path inside the WSL VM.

For example: setting --home=/mnt/c/Users/MyUser/ will result in a workspace path of something like /mnt/c/Users/MyUser/.devsy/contexts/default/workspaces/...

Via Devsy CLI​

Make sure to install the Devsy CLI locally and select a provider you would like to host the workspace on (such as local docker) via:

# Add a provider if you haven't already
devsy provider add docker

Git Repository​

Run the following command in a terminal to start a new workspace:

# Create from Git repository
devsy workspace up github.com/microsoft/vscode-remote-try-node

You can check out specific states of the repository by appending a commit hash, branch or Pull Request slug to the repository url:

Branch: devsy workspace up github.com/microsoft/vscode-remote-try-node@main
Commit: devsy workspace up github.com/microsoft/vscode-remote-try-node@sha256:15ba80171af11374143288fd3d54898860107323
PR:     devsy workspace up github.com/microsoft/vscode-remote-try-node@pull/108/head # Only works for GitHub!
Private Git Repositories

Devsy will forward git credentials to a remote machine so that you can also pull private repositories.

Multiple workspaces from the same repository

Use the --id flag to override the name of the workspace. This allows you to create multiple workspaces from the same repository.

Local Path​

Run the following command in a terminal to create a new workspace:

# Create from a local path
devsy workspace up ./path/to/my-folder

Devsy will sync the folder into the remote machine and create a development environment from the devcontainer.json.

Docker Image​

Run the following command in a terminal to create a new workspace from a docker image:

# Create from a docker image
devsy workspace up ghcr.io/my-org/my-repo:latest

Devsy will create the following .devcontainer.json:

{
    "image": "ghcr.io/my-org/my-repo:latest"
}

Existing local container​

If you have a local container running, you can create a workspace from it by running:

devsy workspace up my-workspace --source container:$CONTAINER_ID

This only works with the docker provider.

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Using --recreate on a workspace based on an already existing container will be rejected.

Recreating a workspace​

If you are working on the devcontainer.json or have pulled changes that affect the development environment, you can recreate a workspace. Recreating a workspace means to apply changes in the devcontainer.json or related Dockerfile to the development environment. If a prebuild repository is supplied, Devsy will try to find the updated development environment image inside the prebuild repository and if not found will fall back to building it.

When recreating a workspace, changes only to the project path or mounted volumes will be preserved. All other changes made in the container will be lost.

Via Devsy CLI​

Run the following command to rebuild an existing workspace:

devsy workspace up my-workspace --recreate

Resetting a workspace​

Some scenarios require pulling in the latest changes from a Git repository or re-uploading your local folder. If instead of recreating the devcontainer you need to completely restart your workspace from a clean slate, use Reset over Recreate.

** When recreating a workspace, no changes will be preserved! **

Via Devsy CLI​

Run the following command to reset an existing workspace:

devsy workspace up my-workspace --reset