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VSCodium Web IDE on Terrarium ​

Imagine having a full, powerful coding environment running in the cloud that you can access from any web browser. That's what VSCodium offers.

Unlike Microsoft's branded VS Code or the legacy code-server, VSCodium is fully open-source and uses the open extension marketplace by default.

Running your cloud IDE in Terrarium is the ultimate developer flex:

  • Total Isolation: Your code, extensions, and terminal commands live inside a secure container.
  • The Time Machine: Accidentally wipe your project or install a broken package? Just rewind the container to an hour ago.
  • Access Anywhere: Terrarium securely publishes the editor to your custom domain.

1. Create the Devbox ​

Let's spin up a fresh container just for coding.

From the CLI:

bash
lxc launch ubuntu:24.04 devbox --profile dev

(You can also use the LXD UI at lxd.<your-domain>; choose the dev profile.)

The dev profile gives the normal terrarium user passwordless sudo, so the editor terminal can install packages without working directly as root.

2. Install VSCodium ​

Jump into your new container:

bash
trm exec devbox

Run these commands to add the VSCodium repository and install the editor:

bash
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y wget gpg apt-transport-https openssl ca-certificates

wget https://gitlab.com/paulcarroty/vscodium-deb-rpm-repo/raw/master/pub.gpg \
  -O /tmp/vscodium-archive-keyring.asc
sudo install -m 0644 /tmp/vscodium-archive-keyring.asc /usr/share/keyrings/vscodium-archive-keyring.asc

echo 'deb [ arch=amd64,arm64 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/vscodium-archive-keyring.asc ] https://paulcarroty.gitlab.io/vscodium-deb-rpm-repo/debs vscodium main' \
  | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/vscodium.list > /dev/null

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y codium

3. Secure and Start the Editor ​

We need to generate a secure "Connection Token" so that only you can log into the editor.

Still inside the container, run:

bash
sudo install -d -m 0755 /etc/codium-web
openssl rand -hex 32 | sudo tee /etc/codium-web/token > /dev/null
sudo chown terrarium:terrarium /etc/codium-web/token
sudo chmod 600 /etc/codium-web/token

Now, let's create a background service so VSCodium starts automatically if the container reboots:

bash
sudo tee /etc/systemd/system/codium-web.service > /dev/null <<'EOF'
[Unit]
Description=VSCodium Web Server
After=network.target

[Service]
User=terrarium
Group=terrarium
WorkingDirectory=/home/terrarium
ExecStart=/bin/bash -lc '/usr/bin/codium serve-web --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8080 --connection-token "$(cat /etc/codium-web/token)" --accept-server-license-terms'
Restart=always
RestartSec=5

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
EOF

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable --now codium-web.service
exit

4. Publish the IDE ​

Your editor is now running privately on port 8080 inside the container. Let's publish it to the web.

On the Terrarium host, run:

bash
lxc config set devbox user.proxy "https://code.example.com:8080@auth"
terrariumctl proxy sync

Terrarium will automatically grab an SSL certificate, require SSO, and route code.example.com to your new web IDE.

If your Terrarium install uses the local managed ZITADEL, terrariumctl proxy sync also updates the route-auth callback URL in ZITADEL automatically. With an external provider such as ZITADEL Cloud, add this callback URL to that provider manually:

text
https://code.example.com/oauth2/callback

5. How to Log In ​

After SSO, VSCodium will ask for your Connection Token.

To view your token, run this command on your Terrarium host:

bash
trm exec devbox -- cat /etc/codium-web/token

Copy that long string, paste it into the browser, and log into your new cloud development environment.

(Tip: To reset your password, run that openssl rand -hex 32 > /etc/codium-web/token command again inside the container and restart the service.)

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