Support vscode.dev (Web Extension)

[jimpowelldev]

Honestly not sure if using SSH in the browser is a possibility, but allowing Remote - SSH to run in the browser would be a game changer. If you're already running on a remote development environment, this would allow you have a fully cloud-based dev stack with nothing to install/maintain, etc.

[RawZ06]

I agree with you ! It's a major feature for web client !
I've a question about that, can we use it to connect localhost as SSH, a virtual machine, or a machine in local network, or this feature, with web client, can we only use in remote server on internet ?

[leo60228]

A browser can't connect via ssh directly, but a proxy would definitely be possible. In theory a proxy could just tunnel the TCP communications over HTTP, which would mean you don't have to trust the proxy operator (as long as you verify the server's fingerprint).

[RawZ06]

A browser can't connect via ssh directly, but a proxy would definitely be possible. In theory a proxy could just tunnel the TCP communications over HTTP, which would mean you don't have to trust the proxy operator (as long as you verify the server's fingerprint).

Oh, i see, but how this extension works on VSCode ? Cause, VSCode is electron based, therefore it's a chrome browser ?

[tanhakabir]

@leo60228 is correct! In this extension we use the ssh client on your machine to make the connection.

[hcyang99]

I am using cdr/code-server for now, does pretty much the same thing. Just that you need to deploy the code-server onto your remote machine. Not all extensions are available, but there are more than vscode.dev.

[tanhakabir]

Hey everyone, thanks for your interest and feedback!

We're happy to share that we just released a private preview service called the Visual Studio Code Server. The VS Code Server is a service you can run on a remote development machine, like your desktop PC or a virtual machine. It allows you to securely connect to that remote machine from anywhere through vscode.dev and doesn't need SSH.

You can learn more in the announcement blog post and docs. There's also a link in that blog to sign up for the private preview with your GitHub alias.

[tamird]

@tanhakabir it looks like it was once possible to run VS Code Server with --serve-local, serving the same need as https://github.com/coder/code-server. That option appears to be gone, and now there's no way to use VS Code Web (https://vscode.dev/) for remote development without VS Code Remote Tunnels.

This comes up when the local machine is running ChromeOS (can't use the VSCode SSH extension). Are there any plans to bring back something like --serve-local? That would allow VS Code Server to displace https://github.com/coder/code-server using SSH port forwarding (which is available on ChromeOS).

[AlsoBearPerson]

I'm also coming here for ChromeOS, via a slightly different direction: While the recommended method of installing vscode as a native crostini app works, that introduces small but noticeable UI lag, particularly when scrolling, compared to vscode.dev running in the main chrome browser. Running code tunnel in crostini provides this, but needlessly bounces the connection from the machine to itself through the cloud.

Implementing any of

• SSH remote support in the browser (there is a pure webasm implementation of an ssh client that ChromeOS uses elsewhere, though this might be relying on subtle chrome APIs at the moment, pending progress on WICG/direct-sockets)
• Direct tunnel connections to localhost without cloud indirection
• Resurrecting --serve-local

would allow for an improved experience in ChromeOS: Perfect scrolling in the main browser, development environment in crostini, and local development that still works while offline, potentially depending on the vscode.dev PWA being loaded for offline use.

[lattice0]

What about dev containers on vscode.dev?

[sroener]

This should be solved with the implementation of microsoft/vscode#191014 ?!
Can the issue be closed?

@roblourens
@jimpowelldev

[roblourens]

I think the original request here implied something slightly different, but I'd say that the use case is satisfied now.