Coder

Coder handles the orchestration of new consistent developer workspaces using source-controlled Dockerfiles and workspace templates. Empower developers and data scientists to self-serve workspaces that just work.

Software Included

Creating an App using the Control Panel

Click the Deploy to DigitalOcean button to create a Droplet based on this 1-Click App. If you aren’t logged in, this link will prompt you to log in with your DigitalOcean account.

Creating an App using the API

In addition to creating a Droplet from the Coder 1-Click App using the control panel, you can also use the DigitalOcean API. As an example, to create a 4GB Coder Droplet in the SFO2 region, you can use the following curl command. You need to either save your API access token) to an environment variable or substitute it in the command below.

curl -X POST -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
         -H 'Authorization: Bearer '$TOKEN'' -d \
        '{"name":"choose_a_name","region":"sfo2","size":"s-2vcpu-4gb","image": "coder"}' \
        "https://api.digitalocean.com/v2/droplets"

Getting Started After Deploying Coder

By default, Coder will run on your Droplet’s public IPv4 address with a self-signed certificate: https://your_droplet_public_ipv4/login

Log in with these credentials, then set a new password:

admin
coder12345

Add a domain (optional)

1. Point your DNS records (coder.yourdomain.com *.coder.yourdomain.com) to the Droplet’s public IPv4 address.
2. Navigate to the domain, Caddy should automatically provision a TLS certificate. (We recommend using an incognito window to avoid initial caching

Enable dev URLs (optional)

1. SSH into your Droplet: ssh root@your_droplet_public_ipv4
2. Follow instructions to modify coder/docker-compose.yaml and set

- DEVURL_HOST=*.coder.yourdomain.com

3. Modify coder/Caddyfile to specify your email address for LetsEncrypt.
4. Restart Coder and Caddy:

cd $HOME/coder && docker-compose restart

Harden your configuration (recommended)

1. SSH into your Droplet: ssh root@your_droplet_public_ipv4
2. Follow instructions to modify coder/Caddyfile to disable “internal” (self-signed) certificates and add your email for LetsEncrypt.
3. Replace https:// { with coder.yourdomain.com, *.coder.yourdomain.com { to limit the proxy to your domain(s).
4. Restart Coder and Caddy:

cd $HOME/coder && docker-compose restart

Use a wildcard certificate

By default, Caddy’s On-Demand TLS will be used to generate certificates for dev URLs. This zero-configuration options works well, but introduces ~10 second delays or rate limiting when a developer visits a newly-created dev URL.

For best results, consider configuring ZeroSSL with Caddy or build a Caddy image with the module for your DNS provider.

Stay tuned for a future release with improved steps for wildcard/custom certificates.

Use a managed Postgres database (optional)

1. SSH into your Droplet: ssh root@your_droplet_public_ipv4
2. Modify coder/docker-compose.yaml and follow our docs to configure your managed database with Coder for Docker.
3. Restart Coder and Caddy:

cd $HOME/coder && docker-compose restart

Stay tuned for a future release with built-in support for DigitalOcean managed DBs.