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Ethan
de9cdca77e
## Summary Make Coder's chat agent honest about workspaces that use `coder_external_agent`. Three behaviors change so the chat stops pretending it can drive an external workspace through to a usable state on its own. <img width="859" height="537" alt="image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/0561442b-95f1-4a2d-853c-7e3776114680" /> ## Problem External agents are not started by Coder. The user has to run `coder agent` on their own host with a token Coder generates. Before this change, the chat agent treated those workspaces like any other: - `create_workspace` would enqueue a build for an external-agent template and then wait minutes (~22 worst case) for an agent that was never going to come up. - When mid-turn tool calls dialed an external agent that was not connected, the chat burned the full 30-second dial timeout and returned generic "the workspace may need to be restarted from the Coder dashboard" guidance, which is not the action the user can take. - Nothing told the chat (or the user, through the chat) that the next action lives outside Coder. ## Fix Three changes scoped to `coderd/x/chatd/`: 1. **`create_workspace` blocks templates with external agents.** The tool reads `template_versions.has_external_agent` for the template's active version and refuses external-agent templates with a message instructing the chat to pick a different template, or to have the user create and start the workspace themselves and then attach it. 2. **Attaching an existing external workspace stays open.** No selection-time gate on attachment; users can still bind a working external workspace to a chat. 3. **External-agent-aware error handling on connection.** Two complementary changes both predicated on proven connectivity failures rather than every dial error: - **`getWorkspaceConn` preflight and timeout handling.** Before opening a connection, the cache-miss path reads the agent's status from the already-loaded row. If the selected agent is external and clearly offline according to the existing `isAgentUnreachable` helper (`Disconnected` or `Timeout`, never `Connecting`), it returns an external-agent-specific error immediately instead of waiting out the 30-second dial timeout. `Connecting` external agents fall through to the dial so a user who just started the agent on their host can still succeed in the same turn. The preflight only fires when the agent is still the latest selected agent for the workspace, so stale-binding recovery via `dialWithLazyValidation` is unaffected. The post-dial rewrite is limited to the dial timeout sentinel; stale/no-agent bindings and non-timeout dial failures preserve their original errors. - **`waitForAgentReady` timeout-branch rewrite.** The 2-minute retry loop used by `create_workspace` and `start_workspace` runs unchanged for all agents. When the loop's outer deadline elapses, the timeout branch substitutes the external-agent message in place of the raw dial error if the agent belongs to an external resource. This applies the same pattern that the cache-hit path of `getWorkspaceConn` already used (`isAgentUnreachable` returning `errChatAgentDisconnected`), extended to the cache-miss path and to the readiness helper, with the external-agent-aware error rewrite layered only on confirmed offline or timeout paths. Closes CODAGT-314
Coder is a self-hosted platform for cloud development environments and AI coding agents. Workspaces are defined with Terraform, connected through a secure Wireguard® tunnel, and automatically shut down when not used. Coder Agents runs a native AI coding agent whose loop executes in the control plane on your infrastructure, with no API keys in workspaces.
- Define cloud development environments in Terraform
- EC2 VMs, Kubernetes Pods, Docker Containers, etc.
- Automatically shutdown idle resources to save on costs
- Onboard developers in seconds instead of days
- Delegate coding work to AI agents on your infrastructure
- Bring any model (Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, Bedrock, self-hosted)
- No LLM credentials in workspaces, user identity on every action
- Centralized model governance, cost tracking, and audit logging
Quickstart
The most convenient way to try Coder is to install it on your local machine and experiment with provisioning cloud development environments using Docker (works on Linux, macOS, and Windows).
# First, install Coder
curl -L https://coder.com/install.sh | sh
# Start the Coder server (caches data in ~/.cache/coder)
coder server
# Navigate to http://localhost:3000 to create your initial user,
# create a Docker template and provision a workspace
Install
The easiest way to install Coder is to use the
install script for Linux
and macOS. For Windows, use the latest ..._installer.exe file from GitHub
Releases.
curl -L https://coder.com/install.sh | sh
You can run the install script with --dry-run to see the commands that will be used to install without executing them. Run the install script with --help for additional flags.
See install for additional methods.
Once installed, you can start a production deployment with a single command:
# Automatically sets up an external access URL on *.try.coder.app
coder server
# Requires a PostgreSQL instance (version 13 or higher) and external access URL
coder server --postgres-url <url> --access-url <url>
Use coder --help to get a list of flags and environment variables. See the install guides for a complete tutorial.
Documentation
Browse the documentation or visit a specific section below:
- Workspaces: Workspaces contain the IDEs, dependencies, and configuration information needed for software development
- Templates: Templates are written in Terraform and describe the infrastructure for workspaces
- Coder Agents: Delegate coding work to AI agents running on your self-hosted infrastructure
- Administration: Learn how to operate Coder
- Premium: Learn about paid features built for large teams
- IDEs: Connect your existing editor to a workspace
Support
Feel free to open an issue if you have questions, run into bugs, or have a feature request.
Join our Discord to provide feedback on in-progress features and chat with the community using Coder!
Integrations
New integrations are always in progress. Open an issue to request one. Contributions are welcome in any official or community repository.
Official
- Coder Registry: Templates, modules, and integrations for common development environments
- VS Code Extension: Open any Coder workspace in VS Code with a single click
- JetBrains Toolbox Plugin: Open any Coder workspace from JetBrains Toolbox with a single click
- JetBrains Gateway Plugin: Open any Coder workspace in JetBrains Gateway with a single click
- Dev Containers: Build development environments using
devcontainer.jsonon Docker, Kubernetes, and OpenShift - Kubernetes Log Stream: Stream Kubernetes Pod events to the Coder startup logs
- Self-Hosted VS Code Extension Marketplace: A private extension marketplace that works in restricted or airgapped networks integrating with code-server.
- GitHub Actions: An action to set up the Coder CLI in GitHub workflows
Community
- Community Templates: Community-contributed workspace templates in the Coder Registry
- Community Modules: Community-contributed modules to extend Coder templates
- Provision Coder with Terraform: Provision Coder on Google GKE, Azure AKS, AWS EKS, DigitalOcean DOKS, IBMCloud K8s, OVHCloud K8s, and Scaleway K8s Kapsule with Terraform
- Coder Template GitHub Action: A GitHub Action that updates Coder templates
- Discord: Chat with the community and provide feedback on in-progress features
Contributing
New contributors are always welcome. If you are new to the Coder codebase, see the contribution guide to get started.
Hiring
Apply on the careers page if you are interested in joining the team.