NOTES.md

vscode-web vs code-server

This feature installs Microsoft's official VS Code web server (the same vscode-server-linux-*-web build used by code serve-web), not coder/code-server. The main practical difference is the extension marketplace: the official server uses the Microsoft Marketplace, so Microsoft-exclusive extensions such as Pylance and GitHub Copilot can be installed. If you do not need those, consider the code-server feature instead.

License

Installing this feature requires explicitly accepting the Microsoft VS Code Server license, which limits usage to your own development purposes. Set the acceptLicenseTerms option to true; installation fails otherwise:

"features": {
    "ghcr.io/coder/devcontainer-features/vscode-web:1": {
        "acceptLicenseTerms": true
    }
}

The server is then started with --accept-server-license-terms.

Extensions

Extensions must be listed in this feature's extensions option. The customizations.vscode.extensions property of devcontainer.json is consumed by VS Code clients (e.g. the Dev Containers extension), not by the standalone web server, so extensions listed only there will not show up in VS Code Web.

Authentication

By default the server binds to 127.0.0.1 and starts without a connection token. This assumes an authenticating reverse proxy (such as Coder) in front of it. If you expose the port directly, set connectionTokenFile to require a token.

Opening a folder

Use the defaultFolder option to control which folder opens by default, or append ?folder=/path/to/folder to the URL.

Coder integration

When used inside a Coder workspace with dev container support, the feature registers a vscode-web app on the workspace dashboard via customizations.coder.apps. Its health check probes the /version endpoint (the standalone web server exposes no /healthz). The app* options only affect this Coder app metadata, not the server itself.