Do I need VSCode on my machine to use it?

Maybe one day we won't need to install an operating system, just have Docker on our machine. Well, it won't be tomorrow yet, but as far as VSCode is concerned, yes, we can.

You read that right: there's a Docker image that's nothing other than VSCode in a browser.

It's useless if you're a heavy user of VSCode (=you've installed it on every one of your computers) but there are situations where, for example, you need to work on another computer (while yours is being repaired or you're traveling and don't have yours) and VSCode's Docker image will come in handy.

A third option, when you do have VSCode locally but the code lives elsewhere: SSH Remote development with VSCode.

Or ... you're not yet convinced by VSCode and just want to try it out.

If all you need is to edit a file or two in a GitHub repository, there is an even lighter option that doesn't require Docker at all: see Start VSCode from github.com.

One docker run codercom/code-server command, and here's the result: a full VS Code, running in your browser.

Why It Works​

• No local VS Code install needed — the editor itself runs inside the container, your browser is just the display.
• Configuration is stored on your host (~/.config/), not inside the project, so it persists across containers and is shared if you start code-server for several projects.
• The container user is mapped to yours (-u "$(id -u):$(id -g)"), so files created or edited from the browser keep your normal file permissions — no root-owned files to clean up afterward.

Installation​

By running the instruction below, you'll download (once) the codercom/code-server Docker image then run a container as a daemon.

$ {`docker run -d --name code-server -p 8080:8080 \
  -v "\${HOME}/.config:/home/coder/.config" \
  -v ".:/home/coder/project" \
  -u "\$(id -u):\$(id -g)" \
  -e "DOCKER_USER=\${USER}" \
  codercom/code-server:latest`}
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Once triggered successfully, just open your browser and visit http://127.0.0.1:8080 to start VSCode in the browser.

The code-server configuration is thus stored in your home directory, in the folder ~/.config/. Like this, config files will not be part of your current project and the configuration will be the same if you start code-server at several places, for different projects.

Getting the Password​

By opening http://127.0.0.1:8080 you'll get this screen:

Back to your console, run cat ${HOME}/.config/code-server/config.yaml to discover the configuration for code-server. You'll see something like this:

$ {`cat \${HOME}/.config/code-server/config.yaml`}

bind-addr: 127.0.0.1:8080
auth: password
password: d8345b9abff6c01d044fac59
cert: false
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Copy/paste the password in the form and submit it and tadaaa — the same VS Code in the browser already shown at the top of this article.

Conclusion​

One Docker image, one docker run command, and a full VS Code is available from any browser — no local install, no lost configuration, no permission headaches on the files you edit. Continue your journey with the official documentation: https://github.com/coder/code-server or https://coder.com/docs/code-server/guide to get more info.