Remote Development

Extend Visual Studio Code's capabilities with remote development tools for SSH, Docker, and WSL environments.

🚀 Get Started

What is Remote Development?

Visual Studio Code's Remote Development extensions let you develop using containers, remote machines, and Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) directly from your local editor. Your code, extensions, and settings remain local, while everything runs remotely.

Remote - SSH

Connect to any Linux machine with SSH access

Remote - WSL

Develop in Linux-based Windows Subsystem

Remote - Containers

Run code inside Docker containers

Remote Config

Share development environments

Installation

Install the Remote Development extension pack to access all remote capabilities: 

1. Open Extensions view (Ctrl+Shift+X)
2. Search for "Remote - Development"
3. Click Install

Using Remote - SSH

Setup SSH Connection

  1. 1 Install Remote - SSH extension
  2. 2 Generate SSH key pair (ssh-keygen)
  3. 3 Add public key to remote server: ~/.ssh/authorized_keys
  4. 4 Press F1 > "Remote-SSH: Connect to Host..."

Configuration File


// ~/.ssh/config
Host myremote
    HostName 192.168.1.100
    User dev
    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa
Use this config file to simplify SSH connections

Remote - Containers

Getting Started

  1. 1 Install Docker and Docker Compose
  2. 2 Install Remote - Containers extension
  3. 3 Open folder in container: Ctrl+Shift+P > "Remote-Containers: Open Folder in Container"

Sample Docker Compose


version: "3"
services:
  app:
    build: .
    ports:
      - "8000:8000"

Run your development environment in isolation with Docker.

Remote - WSL

WSL Setup Guide

  1. 1 Install WSL via Windows Store
  2. 2 Install Remote - WSL extension
  3. 3 Use Ctrl+Shift+P > "Remote-WSL: New WSL Window"

WSL2 Tips

  • Enable WSL2 with wsl --set-default-version 2
  • Shared Linux and Windows file systems

Key Benefits

Summary

Visual Studio Code's remote development capabilities allow you to work in any environment without requiring full clones. Whether using SSH, WSL, or Docker, you get the full VS Code experience wherever your code needs to run.