VS Code Tunnel Server

VS Code Tunnel server that allows you to access your development environment from anywhere using Visual Studio Code.

Features

• 🚀 VS Code CLI with Remote Tunnels support
• 🐳 Docker-based setup for easy deployment
• 🔄 Auto-restart on failure
• 📁 Workspace volume mounted for persistent code
• 💾 Persistent VS Code settings and tunnel credentials across container restarts

Quick Start

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/ngupuk/code-server.git
cd code-server
# Build and start the container
docker-compose up --build -d
# View logs to get the tunnel URL
docker-compose logs -f

Connect to Tunnel

Once the container is running, you'll see a tunnel URL in the logs. To connect from your local VS Code:

# Install VS Code CLI (if not already installed)# Then connect to your tunnel
code tunnel jekyll

Or use the "Connect to Tunnel" feature in VS Code's Remote Explorer.

Docker Support

This container includes Docker CLI and docker-compose, allowing you to run Docker commands inside the development environment.

Using Docker Inside the Container

The container is configured with access to the host machine's Docker daemon via socket mounting (/var/run/docker.sock). This means:

• ✅ You can run docker commands inside the container
• ✅ Containers built/run inside use the host's Docker daemon
• ✅ No Docker-in-Docker overhead or additional setup needed

⚠️ Security Considerations

IMPORTANT: Mounting the Docker socket grants the container user full access to the host's Docker daemon. This effectively grants them root-level access to the entire host system.

• Ensure you only use this container with trusted code
• Be cautious with projects from untrusted sources that run inside this container
• Consider this container as having root access to your machine
• Use with proper network isolation if needed

Example Usage

Once connected to your tunnel, you can run Docker commands:

# List running containers
docker ps
# Build an image
docker build -t my-image .# Run a container
docker run -it my-image bash
# Use docker-compose
docker-compose up

Permissions

The non-root user is automatically added to the docker group, allowing Docker commands to be run without sudo.

Troubleshooting Docker Socket Issues

If you encounter permission errors when running Docker commands:

1. Ensure the Docker socket has the correct permissions on the host: ls -l /var/run/docker.sock
2. The docker group GID inside the container should match the host's docker group GID
3. You may need to restart the container after the host Docker daemon restarts

Configuration

Ports

• 8080 - Default port for VS Code tunnel connections

Volumes

The docker-compose.yml includes three named volumes for data persistence:

• vscode_data - Mounted to /home/vscode/.local/share/code-cli - Persists VS Code tunnel credentials and connection settings (prevents needing to reconnect after restart)
• vscode_config - Mounted to /home/vscode/.config/code-server - Persists VS Code extensions and user settings
• vscode_home - Mounted to /home/vscode - Persists shell history and other user data
• ./workspace - Mounted to /workspace - Contains your development files

Why These Volumes?

When you restart a Docker container without volumes, all data inside the container is lost. This means:

• ❌ Without vscode_data volume: You'd need to reconnect to the tunnel again after each restart
• ❌ Without vscode_config volume: Your VS Code extensions and settings would be lost
• ✅ With these volumes: Everything persists across container restarts

Managing Volumes

List all volumes:

docker volume ls | grep vscode

Remove all VS Code volumes (be careful - this deletes saved data):

docker-compose down -v

Clean up unused volumes:

docker volume prune

Environment Variables (Optional)

You can add these to docker-compose.yml:

environment:
- GITHUB_TOKEN=your_token # For GitHub Copilot integration

Docker Image

You can also pull the pre-built image from GHCR:

docker pull ghcr.io/ngupuk/code-server:latest
docker run -d -p 8080:8080 ghcr.io/ngupuk/code-server:latest

Development

To rebuild the image after making changes:

docker-compose build
docker-compose up -d

Troubleshooting

Container won't start

Check the logs:

docker-compose logs

Can't connect to tunnel

1. Ensure port 8080 is accessible from your network
2. Check firewall rules
3. Verify the tunnel URL in the container logs

Need to reconnect to tunnel after restart?

This indicates the volumes are not properly persisting data. To fix:

1. First run: When you start the container for the first time, follow the tunnel setup instructions in the logs
2. Restart: Subsequent restarts should NOT require reconnection because volumes persist the credentials
3. If still reconnecting: Check that volumes are properly created:

   docker volume ls | grep vscode

Delete tunnel credentials and start fresh

If you need to reset the tunnel connection:

# Stop the container
docker-compose down
# Remove specific volumes
docker volume rm $(docker volume ls -q | grep vscode_data)# Start fresh
docker-compose up -d

License

This project uses VS Code CLI. By using this tunnel, you agree to the VS Code license terms.

Links

• VS Code Remote Tunnels Documentation
• GitHub Container Registry

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Note: This project was converted from code-server to VS Code Tunnel Server.