DevPod is a client-only tool for creating reproducible developer environments based on devcontainer.json on any backend. Each developer environment runs in a container and is specified via devcontainer.json.

With a DevPod provider, these environments can be created on any backend, such as a local computer, a Kubernetes cluster, any accessible remote computer, or a virtual machine in the cloud.You can also extend DevPod and write your own custom providers.

DevPod is the first and only tool for creating and managing development environments that doesn’t require heavyweight server-side setup. Developers can write code in any language and run it anywhere.

Think of DevPod as the glue that connects your local IDE to the machine you want to develop on. So, depending on the requirements of your project, you can create a workspace locally on your computer, on a powerful cloud computer with many GPUs, or on an alternate remote computer. In DevPod, each workspace is managed in the same way, which also makes it easy to switch between workspaces that may be hosted elsewhere.

DevPod – Architecture

DevPod reuse is open DevContainer Standard(Used by Github Codespaces and VSCode DevContainers) to create a consistent developer experience no matter what backend you want to use.

Compared to managed services like Github Codespaces, Jetbrains Spaces, or Google Cloud Workstations, DevPod has the following advantages:

• cut costs: DevPod is typically around 5-10x cheaper than existing services with a similar feature set because it uses bare VMs and automatically shuts down unused VMs.
• No vendor lock-in: Choose the cloud provider that suits you best, whether it’s the cheapest or the most powerful, DevPod supports all cloud providers. If you get tired of using a provider, you can change it with a single command.
• local development: You get the same developer experience on-premises, so there is no need to depend on cloud providers at all.
• Cross-IDE support: VS Code and the full Jetbrains suite are supported, all other suites can be connected via simple ssh.
• client only: No need to install a server backend, DevPod just runs on your computer.
• open source: DevPod is 100% open source and extensible.
• Rich feature set: DevPod already supports pre-builds, automatic inactivity shutdown, git and docker credential sync, and more features coming soon.
• desktop application: DevPod comes with an easy-to-use desktop application that removes all the complexity. DevPod also offers a feature-rich CLI if you want to build your own integrations.