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coder/sshcode

5,709GoAudience · developerComplexity · 2/5Setup · moderate

TLDR

sshcode was a command-line tool (now deprecated) that let you run Visual Studio Code on a remote Linux server via SSH, opening it in your local browser with your extensions and settings automatically synced.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((sshcode))
    What it does
      Remote VS Code
      Browser-based IDE
      Now deprecated
    Key features
      Extension sync
      Settings sync
      Chrome app mode
    Tech stack
      Go
      SSH
      rsync
    Requirements
      64-bit Linux remote
      glibc required
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Things people build with this

USE CASE 1

Connect to a remote Linux server over SSH and edit code in VS Code running in your local browser.

USE CASE 2

Automatically sync your local VS Code extensions and settings to a remote machine on each connection.

USE CASE 3

Open a remote VS Code session in Chrome's app mode so it looks and feels like a native desktop application.

Tech stack

Go

Getting it running

Difficulty · moderate Time to first run · 30min

Remote server must be 64-bit Linux with glibc, Alpine Linux and musl-based systems are not supported on the remote side.

In plain English

sshcode is a command-line tool that lets you use Visual Studio Code on a remote server as if it were running on your own computer. You point it at a server you can reach over SSH, and it installs the necessary software on that server, then opens VS Code in your local browser. The README notes that this project has been deprecated and the team now recommends using the code-server install script directly instead. The main appeal of the tool was that it synced your local VS Code extensions and settings to the remote server automatically, so the coding environment on the remote machine matched what you had locally. This sync happened via rsync each time you connected, and would be faster on repeat connections to the same server. You could turn it off with a flag if you did not want it, or turn on sync-back so that any changes made on the remote side would copy back to your local machine when you disconnected. If Chrome was installed locally, sshcode would open the editor in Chrome's app mode, which hides the browser's address bar and toolbar. The result looked and behaved like a native desktop application rather than a web page. The tool was written in Go and could be installed via the Go toolchain or by downloading a pre-built binary. It ran on Linux, macOS, and Windows Subsystem for Linux as the local machine. The remote server had to be a 64-bit Linux machine using glibc. Alpine Linux and similar distributions using a different system library were not supported on the remote side.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1
I'm using sshcode to connect to a remote Ubuntu server. Show me the exact command to start a session and sync my local VS Code extensions automatically.
Prompt 2
How do I use sshcode with the sync-back flag so changes I make to extensions on the remote server copy back to my local machine when I disconnect?
Prompt 3
Walk me through installing sshcode via the Go toolchain and connecting to a remote server, then opening the editor in Chrome app mode.
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