Coder Has a Free API: The Self-Hosted Remote Development Platform That Replaces Local Dev Machines

#coder #api #devops #cloud

Your developers each have a $3,000 laptop. They spend hours setting up environments. They cannot work when the laptop dies. Coder moves development to your servers — developers connect from any device, and environments are always ready.

What Is Coder?

Coder is an open-source platform for remote development environments. It runs on your infrastructure (Kubernetes, Docker, VMs) and gives developers consistent, powerful workspaces they access from any device through VS Code, JetBrains, or SSH.

The Free Platform

Coder OSS is completely free:

Self-hosted: Run on your own infrastructure
Templates: Define environments as code (Terraform)
Multi-IDE: VS Code, JetBrains, SSH, web terminal
REST API: Full API for automation and integration
RBAC: Role-based access control for teams
Audit logs: Track who did what

Quick Start

Install Coder:

curl -L https://coder.com/install.sh | sh

# Start the server
coder server

Create a workspace template (Terraform):

terraform {
  required_providers {
    coder = { source = "coder/coder" }
    docker = { source = "kreuzwerker/docker" }
  }
}

data "coder_workspace" "me" {}

resource "coder_agent" "main" {
  os   = "linux"
  arch = "amd64"
  dir  = "/home/coder/project"

  startup_script = <<-EOT
    npm install
    npm run dev &
  EOT
}

resource "docker_container" "workspace" {
  name  = "coder-${data.coder_workspace.me.owner}-${data.coder_workspace.me.name}"
  image = "codercom/enterprise-node:ubuntu"

  env = [
    "CODER_AGENT_TOKEN=${coder_agent.main.token}",
  ]

  volumes {
    host_path      = "/home/coder/data/${data.coder_workspace.me.owner}"
    container_path = "/home/coder/project"
  }
}

Use the REST API:

# List workspaces
curl -H "Coder-Session-Token: $TOKEN" \
  https://coder.company.com/api/v2/workspaces

# Create a workspace
curl -X POST -H "Coder-Session-Token: $TOKEN" \
  https://coder.company.com/api/v2/organizations/default/members/me/workspaces \
  -d '{"template_id": "abc123", "name": "my-project"}'

# Start/stop workspace
curl -X PUT -H "Coder-Session-Token: $TOKEN" \
  https://coder.company.com/api/v2/workspaces/WORKSPACE_ID/builds \
  -d '{"transition": "start"}'

Connect your IDE:

# VS Code
coder open vscode my-workspace

# SSH
coder ssh my-workspace

# Port forward
coder port-forward my-workspace --tcp 3000:3000

Why Teams Choose Coder

A fintech company with 200 developers had a 2-day onboarding process for new hires. Each developer needed specific Python versions, database tools, and compliance certificates on their laptop. After deploying Coder, new developers logged in and had a fully configured workspace in 5 minutes. When a developer's laptop was stolen, they logged in from another device and continued working immediately — no data was on the laptop.

Who Is This For?

Enterprise teams needing secure, centralized development environments
Security-conscious companies that cannot have code on developer laptops
Platform teams standardizing developer experience across the org
Remote teams where developers work from varying hardware

Start Using Coder

Coder gives your team powerful, consistent development environments on your infrastructure. Terraform templates, any IDE, and full API access.

Need help setting up remote development infrastructure? I build custom platform solutions — reach out to discuss your project.

Found this useful? I publish daily deep-dives into developer tools and APIs. Follow for more.

DEV Community