vultr-vscode

vultr-vscode is a node.js utility that enables you to create a virtual machine on vultr and host Visual Code on the browser

Motivation

I have been using Gitpod for quite some time and I liked the idea of being able to code from any place with the same settings and extensions of VS Code that I use daily. However the downside of Gitpod is that it's very expensive in comparison with vultr. I created this tool because I found the concept very interesting and wanted to achieve the same service that Gitpod provides but with less costs.

Requirements

• Nodejs
• NPM

Installation

Simply clone the repository and install the modules:

git clone https://github.com/naseif/vultr-vscode.git
cd vultr-vscode
npm i

How to use

Creating an Instance

First of all you are going to need your Vultr API Key to initalize the vultr client. You can find your API Key here.

Second you need to create an account on duckdns to get a free domain to host visual code with. After you have created your duckdns account create a domain.

Now go to /hosting/install.sh and add your domain name, duckdns token and an email for the SSL certificate here

Also change server_name in /hosting/code-server from ##; to myduckdnsdomain.com;

To create a server with the defaults:

node index.js --key APIKEY --defServer

This will create a server with the following specs:

const defaults = {
  plan: "vc2-2c-4gb", // 2 Cores, 4GB RAM Server
  region: "fra", // Location: Frankfurt
  os: "387", // OS : Ubuntu 20.04
};

To avoid providing the API key each time you want to create an instance, execute the following command:

node index.js --init

This will ask for the API Key and the prefered server specs (plan, region, os) and then create a config file at /Config/vultr_config.json

Ìf you went through --init, all you have to do next time you want to create an instance is executing the following:

node index.js --start

Destroying the Instance

When creating an instance, a file called instance.json will be created and saved under /Config/instance.json

This file will contain the newly created instance info such as IP, ID, and Password.

To stop the Instance, execute the following:

node index.js --stop

if the config file does not exist, it will default to prompts and ask after the API Key and the ID of the instance to destroy.

Result

Contributions

Software contributions are welcome. If you are not a dev, testing and reproting bugs can also be very helpful!

Questions?

Please open an issue if you have questions, wish to request a feature, etc.