Workspace

Workspace is a remote development solution built on cloud-native principles, supporting remote connections via web and VSCode clients.

Design Principles
One-Click Creation of Development Environment
Customizing the Development Environment
Customizing the Creation Process
Customizing Resource Specifications
Customizing the Creation Timing

# Design Principles

Declarative: Development environment based on the Dockerfile ecosystem, managed alongside code
Fast Startup: Code can be ready in seconds, even for large repositories
On-Demand Usage: Development resources are acquired as needed and quickly reclaimed during idle times to avoid resource waste

# One-Click Creation of Development Environment

You can click the "Workspace" button in the branch page to create a development environment with a single click. No configuration is required, and it will directly open a default development environment using cnbcool/default-dev-env:latest as the base image.

# Customizing the Development Environment

If you want to start a custom development environment when clicking the "Workspace" button on the branch page, you can add a .ide/Dockerfile file in the root directory of the repository. In the Dockerfile, you can freely customize the development environment. When starting the development environment, a custom image will be built using the .ide/Dockerfile as the base image.

# .ide/Dockerfile
FROM node:20

# Install additional software as needed
# RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y git

# Install code-server and commonly used VSCode extensions
RUN curl -fsSL https://code-server.dev/install.sh | sh \
  && code-server --install-extension redhat.vscode-yaml \
  && code-server --install-extension dbaeumer.vscode-eslint \
  && code-server --install-extension eamodio.gitlens \
  && code-server --install-extension tencent-cloud.coding-copilot \
  && echo done

# Install SSH service to support Remote-SSH access to the development environment from the VSCode client
RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y wget unzip openssh-server

# Specify character set to support inputting Chinese characters in the command line
# (choose the appropriate character set as needed)
ENV LANG C.UTF-8
ENV LANGUAGE C.UTF-8

# Customizing the Creation Process

If you want to use a custom YAML pipeline configuration when clicking the "Workspace" button on the branch page, you can add a .cnb.yml file in the root directory of the repository and add the following configuration:

# .cnb.yml
$:
  # VSCode event: specifically for starting remote development from the page
  vscode:
    - docker:
        # Use a custom image as the development environment
        image: node:20
      services:
        - vscode
        - docker
      stages:
        - name: ls
          script: ls -al

# Customizing Resource Specifications

You can declare the required development resources using runner.cpus, with a maximum of 64 cores and memory equal to cpus x 2(GB).

# .cnb.yml
$:
  vscode:
    - runner:
        cpus: 64
      docker:
        build: .ide/Dockerfile
      services:
        - vscode
        - docker
      stages:
        - name: ls
          script: ls -al

# Customizing the Creation Timing

Using .cnb.yml, you can automatically create a development environment when creating a new branch.

# .cnb.yml
# Match all branches
(**):
  # Create a development environment when creating a branch
  branch.create:
    - name: vscode
      services:
        # Declare the use of the vscode service
        - vscode
      docker:
        # Custom development environment
        build: .ide/Dockerfile
      wework:
        title: Workspace
      stages:
        - name: Execute custom script
          script:
            - npm install
            - npm run start

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