# Plugin devcontainer config for GitHub Codespaces

**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/plugin-devcontainer-config-for-github-codespaces/380851
**Category:** Development
**Tags:** dev-install
**Created:** [August 29, 2025, 3:00am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/plugin-devcontainer-config-for-github-codespaces/380851 "2025-08-29T03:00:40Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![Alteras](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/alteras/32/179824_2.png) [@Alteras](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Alteras)
#### Post date: [August 29, 2025, 3:00am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/plugin-devcontainer-config-for-github-codespaces/380851/1 "2025-08-29T03:00:40Z")

</div>

I recently made a GitHub Codespaces devcontainer config for discourse plugins that will automatically clone the discourse core repo around the plugin, generating a fresh discourse dev environment for each plugin.

> **Screenshots of my plugin repo codespace auto cloning discourse/discourse**
>
> ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/4X/9/d/3/9d35a0d3b9c6ff47e35183bc83283fbab1688f32.jpeg)  
> ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/4X/9/b/f/9bf8084d55d819159764163c45a199378dd7bfc2.jpeg)

It extends from the existing config for discourse core, preserving the automated setup and task shortcuts for starting a new build.

Here is a commit in one of my repos that contain the related configs for it.  
[https://github.com/Alteras1/discourse-collections/commit/dece1d0ed2b96343b659addab64455bf835976f0](https://github.com/Alteras1/discourse-collections/commit/dece1d0ed2b96343b659addab64455bf835976f0)

Unfortunately, to be able to run build tasks via shortcuts, the user lands on the `/discourse` directory, so the plugin repo is not immediately available. However, users can just navigate to their respective repos plugins in the `/discourse/plugins` directory, or add it to the explorer as a workspace folder via the command palette. Adding workspace folder will also expose the plugin repo to the vscode source control Git UI.

> **More screenshots of adding workspace folder**
>
> ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/4X/9/d/9/9d92a04b65ebba4fab96ea095ce38d37ca54d535.jpeg)  
> ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/4X/c/0/3/c038ec7161b9620ab0484bb5e3296813addc80bf.jpeg)  
> ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/4X/f/7/c/f7c7ba4163021228ae881556218aaa93c900f40a.jpeg)

Adding the workspace folder can probably be done programmatically in vscode, but I haven’t tested it.