coder-workspace-management

Coder Workspace Management Skill

Comprehensive knowledge of Coder CLI commands for managing workspaces, templates, and the Coder platform. This skill enables you to help users interact with their Coder deployment from the command line.

What is Coder?

Coder is a self-hosted cloud development environment (CDE) platform that allows organizations to provision secure, consistent, and efficient remote development workspaces. Key features:

• Self-hosted: Deploy on your own cloud or on-premises infrastructure
• Terraform-based: Templates define infrastructure as code
• Multiple IDEs: VS Code, JetBrains, Jupyter, and more
• Kubernetes-native: Built for scalable containerized environments
• AI-Ready: Built-in support for AI coding agents (like Claude Code)

Core Concepts

Component	Description	Analogy
Templates	Terraform blueprints defining dev environments (OS, tools, resources)	Recipe
Workspaces	Running environments created from templates	Cooked meal
Users	Developers who launch and work in workspaces	People eating
Tasks	AI-powered coding agents running inside workspaces	Smart kitchen appliance

Coder CLI Overview

The coder CLI is the primary interface for interacting with Coder deployments.

Basic Usage

coder [global-flags] <subcommand>

Global Flags

Flag	Environment Variable	Description
--url <url>	$CODER_URL	Coder deployment URL
--token <string>	$CODER_SESSION_TOKEN	Authentication token
-v, --verbose	$CODER_VERBOSE	Enable verbose output
--no-version-warning	$CODER_NO_VERSION_WARNING	Suppress version mismatch warnings
--global-config <path>	$CODER_CONFIG_DIR	Config directory (default: ~/.config/coderv2)

Authentication

# Log in to a Coder deployment
coder login <deployment-url>

# Log out
coder logout

# Check who you are authenticated as
coder whoami

Workspace Commands

Creating Workspaces

# Create a workspace from a template
coder create --template="<template-name>" <workspace-name>

# Create with specific parameters
coder create --template="<template-name>" --var="key=value" <workspace-name>

# Create with rich parameters (JSON)
coder create --template="<template-name>" --rich-parameter-file=params.json <workspace-name>

Workspace naming rules:

• Must start and end with a letter or number
• Only letters, numbers, and hyphens allowed
• 1-32 characters
• Case-insensitive (lowercase recommended)
• Cannot use new or create as names
• Must be unique within your workspaces

Listing Workspaces

# List all workspaces
coder list

# List with filters
coder list owner:me
coder list status:running
coder list template:my-template
coder list owner:me status:running

# Available filters:
# - owner:me or owner:<username>
# - name:<workspace-name>
# - template:<template-name>
# - status:<status> (e.g., running, stopped, failed)
# - outdated:true
# - dormant:true
# - has-agent:connecting|connected|timeout
# - id:<uuid>

Viewing Workspace Details

# Show workspace resources and connection info
coder show <workspace-name>

# Display resource usage for current workspace
coder stat

Starting and Stopping Workspaces

# Start a workspace
coder start <workspace-name>

# Stop a workspace
coder stop <workspace-name>

# Restart a workspace (stop then start)
coder restart <workspace-name>

Updating Workspaces

# Update a workspace to latest template version
coder update <workspace-name>

# Force re-entry of template variables (useful for broken workspaces)
coder update <workspace-name> --always-prompt

# Update without starting
coder update <workspace-name> --dry-run

Workspace Lifecycle

# Rename a workspace
coder rename <old-name> <new-name>

# Delete a workspace
coder delete <workspace-name>

# Open a workspace in browser
coder open <workspace-name>

# Ping a workspace (check connectivity)
coder ping <workspace-name>

Workspace Scheduling

# Schedule automated start/stop times
coder schedule <workspace-name> <schedule>

# Example: Mon-Fri, 9 AM to 5 PM UTC
coder schedule my-workspace "09:00-17:00 America/Los_Angeles"

SSH Access

# Start a shell into a workspace
coder ssh <workspace-name>

# Run a command in a workspace
coder ssh <workspace-name> -- command

# Configure SSH host entries
coder config-ssh

# Port forwarding
coder port-forward <workspace-name> <local-port>:<workspace-port>

Background Services

# Show resource usage for current workspace
coder stat

# Run network speed test
coder speedtest <workspace-name>

Template Commands

Managing Templates

# List templates
coder templates list

# Show template details
coder templates show <template-name>

# Create a template from examples
coder templates init

# Push a template to Coder deployment
coder template push <template-name> -d <directory>

# Update an existing template
coder template update <template-name> -d <directory>

Template Development

# Initialize a new template from examples
coder templates init

# Available examples include:
# - Docker (container-based workspaces)
# - Kubernetes (pod-based workspaces)
# - AWS EC2 (full VM workspaces)
# - Terraform provider examples

State Management

# Pull Terraform state for debugging
coder state pull <username>/<workspace-name>

# Push modified state (CAUTION: can corrupt state)
coder state push <username>/<workspace-name>

# Used for manual Terraform state repairs

Workspace Metadata

# Add workspace to favorites
coder favorite <workspace-name>

# Remove from favorites
coder unfavorite <workspace-name>

Auto-Update Management

# Toggle auto-update policy for a workspace
coder autoupdate <workspace-name> enable
coder autoupdate <workspace-name> disable

# When enabled, workspace auto-updates to latest template version on start

Port Forwarding

# Forward ports from workspace to local machine
coder port-forward <workspace-name> <local-port>:<workspace-port>

# For reverse port forwarding, use SSH
coder ssh -R <remote-port>:localhost:<local-port> <workspace-name>

Dotfiles Management

# Apply dotfiles repository to personalize workspace
coder dotfiles <git-repository-url>

# Automatically applied on workspace start if configured

Tokens Management

# List personal access tokens
coder tokens list

# Create a new token
coder tokens create

# Delete a token
coder tokens delete <token-id>

Server Operations

# Start a Coder server
coder server

# Server flags include:
# --address <bind-address>
# --port <port>
# --tls-enable
# --tls-cert-file <path>
# --tls-key-file <path>

Troubleshooting Commands

Network Debugging

# Print network debug information
coder netcheck

# Tests DERP and STUN connectivity

Logs

Coder stores logs at these locations in workspaces:

Service	Location
Startup script	/tmp/coder-startup-script.log
Shutdown script	/tmp/coder-shutdown-script.log
Agent	/tmp/coder-agent.log

Logs are truncated at 5MB.

Common Issues

1. Workspace won't start after template update

# Re-enter template parameters
coder update <workspace-name> --always-prompt

2. State corruption

# Manual state repair (admin only)
coder state pull <username>/<workspace-name>
# Make changes
coder state push <username>/<workspace-name>

3. Connection issues

# Check connectivity
coder ping <workspace-name>
coder netcheck

Bulk Operations

Note: Bulk operations are a Premium feature.

# In the UI, select multiple workspaces and use Actions dropdown:
# - Bulk start
# - Bulk stop
# - Bulk update
# - Bulk delete

Environment Variables

Key environment variables for Coder CLI:

export CODER_URL="https://coder.example.com"
export CODER_SESSION_TOKEN="<your-token>"
export CODER_VERBOSE=false
export CODER_CONFIG_DIR="~/.config/coderv2"

Workspace Filtering Examples

# Find my running workspaces
coder list owner:me status:running

# Find outdated workspaces
coder list outdated:true

# Find dormant workspaces
coder list dormant:true

# Find workspaces with agents connecting
coder list has-agent:connecting

# Combine filters
coder list owner:me status:running template:python-dev

Integration with Development Workflows

Pre-commit Hooks

# Example: Run tests in workspace before commit
coder ssh my-workspace -- npm test

CI/CD Integration

# Start workspace for CI job
coder start ci-workspace --wait

# Run commands
coder ssh ci-workspace -- ./ci-script.sh

# Stop when done
coder stop ci-workspace

Best Practices

1. Use templates: Define environments in templates for consistency
2. Schedule shutdowns: Reduce costs by auto-stopping idle workspaces
3. Enable auto-update: Keep workspaces current with template changes
4. Monitor resources: Use coder stat to track workspace usage
5. Use filters: Efficiently find and manage workspaces
6. Secure tokens: Use environment variables for session tokens

Coder Tasks (AI Agents)

Coder supports AI coding agents running inside workspaces:

# Tasks require templates with `coder_ai_task` resource
# View tasks in workspace UI under "Tasks" tab
# Tasks can be managed via Coder deployment UI

Additional Resources

• Workspace Management Guide
• CLI Reference
• Quickstart Guide
• Coder GitHub