What developers get in a workspace

Developers get browser-based IDEs running in OpenShift containers, with on-demand access to editors, language servers, debugging tools, and application runtimes without local setup.

Figure 1. User workspaces interactions with other components

User workspaces interactions with other components

Each workspace runs as an OpenShift Pod containing the IDE, language servers, debugging tools, and application runtimes. Developers interact with the workspace through a browser-based editor or a desktop IDE connected over SSH.

A workspace Pod includes:

  • An editor container (Visual Studio Code - Open Source by default, or JetBrains through Gateway)
  • A tools container with language servers, compilers, and CLIs defined in the devfile
  • A gateway sidecar for request routing

Supporting OpenShift resources created for each workspace:

  • A Persistent Volume for project source code (persisted across restarts)
  • Services and Routes for IDE endpoint access
  • Secrets for Git credentials and workspace configuration
  • ConfigMaps for environment-specific settings

The devfile v2 format specifies which tools and runtimes a workspace includes. When a workspace starts, the Dev Workspace Operator reads the devfile and creates all necessary OpenShift resources.

Figure 2. OpenShift Dev Spaces workspace components

Workspace components