# Remote IDEs

Remote Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) have become essential for cloud-native development, collaboration, and education.
But traditional setups often suffer from **slow startup times, high idle costs, and complex resource management**.
With **Unikraft Cloud**, remote IDEs gain the advantages of **microVMs**, making them **fast, secure, and truly serverless**.

## Why run remote IDEs on Unikraft Cloud

### ⚡ Instant developer environments

Unikraft microVMs boot in milliseconds, enabling **instant spin-up of full-featured IDEs** on demand.
Developers start coding immediately without waiting for heavy VMs or containers to initialise.


### 🔒 Secure, isolated workspaces

Each IDE runs as a **dedicated microVM instance**, ensuring strong workload isolation and reducing the risk of cross-tenant data leaks.
Sensitive code stays protected in a **minimal, hardened environment**.


### 💰 Cost-effective scale-to-zero

Idle IDE sessions automatically scale down to zero, eliminating wasteful spending on unused developer environments.
Pay only for active usage, whether it’s a classroom full of students or a globally distributed engineering team.


### 🌍 Seamless collaboration

Unikraft Cloud integrates with serverless backends, databases, and API gateways—so IDEs can connect effortlessly to the developer’s toolchain.
Perfect for **pair programming, CI/CD pipelines, or education platforms**.

### 🚀 High performance with low overhead

MicroVMs run closer to bare metal than containers, providing developers with
**snappy, low-latency environments** that feel as fast as local coding—without
sacrificing portability or scalability.


## Getting started

This guide will show you how to run [Visual Studio Code](https://code.visualstudio.com/) as a serverless app on Unikraft Cloud.
The [Code Server](https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/remote/vscode-server) allows you to run Visual Studio Code on a remote server and access it through a web browser or a local VS Code client.
When not in use, the instance will [scale-to-zero](/docs/features/scale-to-zero) and resume in milliseconds depending on usage.


To run it, follow these steps:

1. Install the [`kraft` CLI tool](https://unikraft.org/docs/cli/install) and a container runtime engine (for example, [Docker](https://docs.docker.com/engine/install/)).

1. Clone the [`examples` repository](https://github.com/unikraft-cloud/examples) and `cd` into the `examples/code-server/` directory:

```bash
git clone https://github.com/unikraft-cloud/examples
cd examples/code-server/
```

Make sure to log into Unikraft Cloud and pick a [metro](/platform/metros) close to you.
This guide uses `fra` (Frankfurt, 🇩🇪).

<CodeTabs syncKey="cli-tool">

```bash title="unikraft"
unikraft login
```

```bash title="kraft"
# Set Unikraft Cloud access token
export UKC_TOKEN=token
# Set metro to Frankfurt, DE
export UKC_METRO=fra
```

</CodeTabs>

The `UKC_TOKEN` and `UKC_METRO` environment variables are only supported by the legacy CLI.

When done, invoke the following command to deploy this app on Unikraft Cloud:

<CodeTabs syncKey="cli-tool">

```bash title="unikraft"
unikraft volumes create \
    --set name=code-workspace \
    --set size=1024 \
    --set metro=fra
```

```bash title="kraft"
kraft cloud volume create \
    --name code-workspace \
    --size 1Gi

kraft cloud deploy \
    --scale-to-zero on \
    --scale-to-zero-stateful \
    --scale-to-zero-cooldown 4s \
    --name code-server \
    -p 443:8443 \
    -M 2Gi \
    -v code-workspace:/workspace \
    -e PGUID=0 \
    -e PGID=0 \
    -e PASSWORD=unikraft \
    -e SUDO_PASSWORD=unikraft \
    -e DEFAULT_WORKSPACE="/workspace" \
    .
```

</CodeTabs>

Now, you can access the Code Server in the browser, at the provided address.

### Volume

This deployment creates a volume for data persistence: `code-workspace`.
Upon deleting the instance, this volume will persist, allowing you to create another instance without losing data.
To remove the volume, you can use:

<CodeTabs syncKey="cli-tool">

```bash title="unikraft"
unikraft volumes delete code-workspace
```

```bash title="kraft"
kraft cloud volume rm code-workspace
```

</CodeTabs>

## Learn more

Use the `--help` option for detailed information on using Unikraft Cloud:

<CodeTabs syncKey="cli-tool">

```bash title="unikraft"
unikraft --help
```

```bash title="kraft"
kraft cloud --help
```

</CodeTabs>

Or visit the [CLI Reference](/docs/cli/unikraft) or the [legacy CLI reference](/docs/cli/kraft/overview).