Provision Docker containers as Coder workspaces with this example template.

The container image determines what tools, languages, and runtimes are available in the workspace out of the box, so it has a major impact on the developer experience.

Some options to consider:

• codercom/example-base:ubuntu (default): minimal and lightweight, but may not include many tools developers expect by default
• codercom/example-universal:ubuntu: catch-all image with many languages and tools available, but larger and slower to pull

More language-specific images (Go, Java, Node.js, and more) are available in coder/images, and the devcontainers/images collection is another good source of ready-made development images. You can also build your own image to pre-bake the exact tools your team needs. Visit Coder's image management docs for additional guidance.

The VM you run Coder on must have a running Docker socket and the coder user must be added to the Docker group:

# Add coder user to Docker group
sudo adduser coder docker

# Restart Coder server
sudo systemctl restart coder

# Test Docker
sudo -u coder docker ps

This template provisions the following resources:

• Docker image (built by Docker socket and kept locally)
• Docker container pod (ephemeral)
• Docker volume (persistent on /home/coder)

This means, when the workspace restarts, any tools or files outside of the home directory are not persisted. To pre-bake tools into the workspace (e.g. python3), modify the container image. Alternatively, individual developers can personalize their workspaces with dotfiles.

Note This template is designed to be a starting point! Edit the Terraform to extend the template to support your use case.

Edit the Dockerfile and run coder templates push to update workspaces.