Document Code Server (#11)
Document coder/code-server deployment Reviewed-on: #11 Co-authored-by: Daniel McKnight <daniel@mcknight.tech> Co-committed-by: Daniel McKnight <daniel@mcknight.tech>
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Forgejo McKnight
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---
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date: 2025-05-18
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title: Code Server
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tags:
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- homelab
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- development
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- software
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- code-assistant
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---
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I recently started using [Forgejo](https://forgejo.org/) for managing my personal projects (including this blog content).
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Prior to this, I was using self-hosted [GitLab](https://about.gitlab.com/); maybe I'll write a full post about this
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in the future, but basically I made the change because GitLab in Docker was a real memory hog and I much prefer
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open source solutions where available anyway. One thing I missed from GitLab (and GitHub) is the built-in web IDE for
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making changes without having to clone the project locally. I found [Coder](https://coder.com/docs/code-server)
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which provides a containerized VSCode PWA that I plan to use as an alternative to GitHub Codespaces and GitLab
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workspaces.
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## What is Code Server
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Code Server is an open source container distribution of VSCodium. VSCodium is the open source release of VSCode (think
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Chromium and Google Chrome). I personally have more experience with PyCharm and other JetBrains IDEs, but VSCode
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is another popular option and I've been making the transition at work from PyCharm to VSCode after comparing the
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LLM integration between them. Long story short, VSCode is miles ahead of JetBrains IDEs for code writing and
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LLM context management, at least as of around March 2025 when I last compared them. Things are moving *very* quickly in
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this space, so it is hard to know how LLMs and IDE integrations compare from week to week.
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I haven't fully evaluated the differences between VSCode and Code Server yet, but in the context of a replacement for
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what I had with GitLab and GitHub I am initially satisfied with what I see in Code Server.
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## Deployment
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Deployment is as simple as starting a Docker container. In addition to the documented setup process, I also mounted
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a directory with my SSH configuration and keys so that I can easily connect to GitHub and my private Forgejo via SSH.
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I configured nginx ingress (for access from my LAN only). For most deployments its probably easier to just use IP
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addresses, but I like using nginx. This makes it a little easier to move deployments around since I just have to update
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Nginx to point at the appropriate IP address. I've included my site config below in case anyone reading this wants to
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achieve something similar. I don't know that this configuration is optimal, but it is working.
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```
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server {
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listen 80;
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listen 443 ssl;
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server_name code.*;
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include /config/nginx/ssl.conf;
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add_header Front-End-Https on;
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location / {
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include /config/nginx/local_only.conf;
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include /config/nginx/resolver.conf;
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# Advanced Proxy Config
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send_timeout 5m;
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proxy_read_timeout 240;
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proxy_send_timeout 240;
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proxy_connect_timeout 240;
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# Basic Proxy Config
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proxy_set_header Host $host:$server_port;
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proxy_set_header X-Client-IP $http_x_forwarded_for;
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proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
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#proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
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proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto https;
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proxy_redirect http:// $scheme://;
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proxy_http_version 1.1;
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proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
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proxy_set_header Connection upgrade;
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proxy_set_header Accept-Encoding gzip;
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proxy_cache_bypass $cookie_session;
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proxy_no_cache $cookie_session;
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proxy_buffers 32 4k;
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proxy_max_temp_file_size 2048m;
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proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Host <coder domain name>;
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proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $remote_addr;
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proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Ssl on;
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proxy_pass http://coder:8080/;
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}
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}
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```
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## Initial Impressions
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I wrote the bulk of this post about 2 months ago and I admittedly have not found myself using Code Server for
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anything other than this blog project. I have been using Copilot in VSCode more regularly in my day-to-day, and its
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lack of support in Code Server is probably a deal breaker for me. Even though I am unlikely to continue using
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Code Server, I may check out Coder as a method for exposing a different IDE via web browser.
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## Future Plans
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As mentioned, I might check out Coder as a more complete reproducible workspace
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in lieu of Code Server. Alternatively, I might just run VSCode in a VM as a simpler solution, though I would miss
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having things like easy clipboard integration.
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I have also started looking into [Neovim](https://neovim.io/) for code management and might work that into my setup.
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I don't expect to get any kind of LLM code assistant functionality in `nvim`, but it would be an easy way to have a
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single dev system that I can just connect to from whatever client I have available. I will probably dedicate my next
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post here to documenting my `nvim` configuration (along with some updates to my
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[previously-documented shell customizations](https://blog.mcknight.tech/2024/03/27/Shell-Customizations/)).
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