code-server

code-server — Rigbox example

Runs code-server — VS Code in the browser, the well-known self-hosted editor — on Rigbox. Open the app and you get the full VS Code UI: file tree, editor, integrated terminal, extensions. This is an established off-the-shelf product, not hand-written app code.

The single capability: an established product, installed reproducibly

The whole point here is running a real, third-party product as-is through a reproducible deploy. rig.yaml's install: script puts code-server onto the Rigbox base with its official installer, and reproducible: true freezes the result so it only ever runs once:

reproducible: true
install: |
  set -euo pipefail
  # Install code-server (VS Code in the browser) on top of the rigbox base.
  curl -fsSL https://code-server.dev/install.sh | sudo sh

No Dockerfile — install: is the same script a plain deploy would run on the VM; reproducible: true is what makes rig deploy freeze its result.

Reproducible deploy + the hybrid model

The deploy is hybrid — the image carries the environment, rsync carries the code:

• First rig deploy: boots a throwaway builder VM from the base image, runs install: inside it (code-server installed once), snapshots the rootfs as a content-addressed image, boots the workspace from it.
• Later rig deploy: if the build inputs (install: script, base image) are unchanged, it reuses the cached image — no re-install, fast.

Deploy

cd code-server && rig deploy

No required env — DATA_DIR is set in rig.yaml.

After deploy, look at

• The VS Code UI in the browser — open a file, use the integrated terminal, install an extension.
• The editor opens on $DATA_DIR (/home/developer/data) as its workspace folder. Back up those files before image replacement.

Notes

• Persistence. User data, settings, extensions, and edited files live under $DATA_DIR=/home/developer/data. Code-only redeploys preserve them; re-imaging replaces the root filesystem. Back up this directory before an image deployment.
• --auth none is intentional. The app is private by default and the Rigbox gateway auth-gates anonymous traffic, so code-server's own password gate is redundant — the gateway is the front door. Don't set this app public without re-adding code-server auth.
• Health: GET /healthz → 200 (served by code-server); the process binds 0.0.0.0:8080. timeoutSeconds: 90 covers a cold first boot.

Deployment strategy

This example explicitly uses workspace.deployment.strategy: image because its installer changes system packages, global executable paths, or shared tool configuration. The badge review shows image replacement and requires permission before replacing an existing workspace root filesystem. It is not an incremental app release. Use a dedicated workspace and back up root-filesystem development files; persistent volumes are retained. Migrating this installer to app-local releases remains separate work.