Using Codespaces

Create/connect to a codespace through a web browser

You can see a list of your running codespaces at https://github.com/codespaces (found in the left hamburger menu icon).

Note: You get 120 Codespace-hours per month if you are a Github Education-verified user. Note that unused codespaces and the storage they take up add towards this quota. See your Billing > Usage page for details of how your Codespaces are being billed. (Github gives you a discount as a verified user so you are not billed; nonetheless check that your budget is set to 0 to ensure they do not bill you.)

In the repository page (e.g. https://github.com/nyjc-computing/campus), click on the green icon Code > Codespaces dropdown, where you will see a button to create a new codespace, or connect to an existing one. If you already have one running, connecting to it will let you resume where you last left off. Try not to leave work hanging so you are able to delete codespaces when necessary; note that codespaces are also auto-deleted after a period of disuse.

Create/connect to a codespace through VSCode

In VSCode, the main entrypoint for container access is through the blue button in the bottom left (looks like "><"). You will first need to install the following extensions:

• GitHub Codespaces (publisher: github.com)

When you click the bottom left button (called the Remote Window button), there are two options under Codespaces:

• Connect to Codespace...
• Create New Codespace...

VSCode will prompt you to sign in to GitHub to let it access your codespaces. You can now use this option to connect to existing codespaces or create new ones.

When you are done with the codespace, remember to close the connect using File > Close Remote Connection so it doesn't keep running.