coder/docs/tutorials/persistent-shared-workspaces.md

# Persistent Shared Workspaces with Service Accounts

> [!NOTE]
> This guide requires a
> [Premium license](https://coder.com/pricing#compare-plans) because service
> accounts are a Premium feature. For more details,
> [contact your account team](https://coder.com/contact).

This guide walks through setting up a long-lived workspace that is owned by a
service account and shared with a rotating set of users. Because no single
person owns the workspace, it persists across team changes and every user
authenticates as themselves.

This pattern is useful for any scenario where a workspace outlives the people
who use it:

- **On-call rotations** — Engineers share a workspace pre-loaded with runbooks,
  dashboards, and monitoring tools. Access rotates with the shift schedule.
- **Shared staging or QA** — A team workspace hosts a persistent staging
  environment. Testers and reviewers are added and removed as sprints change.
- **Pair programming** — A service-account-owned workspace gives two or more
  developers a shared environment without either one owning (and accidentally
  deleting) it.
- **Contractor onboarding** — An external team gets scoped access to a workspace
  for the duration of an engagement, then access is revoked.

The steps below use an **on-call SRE workspace** as a running example, but the
same commands apply to any of the scenarios above. Substitute the usernames,
group names, and template to match your use case.

## Prerequisites

- A running Coder deployment (v2.32+) with workspace sharing enabled. Sharing
  is on by default for OSS; Premium deployments may require
  [admin configuration](../user-guides/shared-workspaces.md#policies).
- The [Coder CLI](../install/index.md) installed and authenticated.
- An account with the `Owner` or `User Admin` role.
- [OIDC authentication](../admin/users/oidc-auth/index.md) configured so
  shared users log in with their corporate SSO identity. Configure
  [refresh tokens](../admin/users/oidc-auth/refresh-tokens.md) to prevent
  session timeouts during long work sessions.
- A [wildcard access URL](../admin/networking/wildcard-access-url.md) configured
  (e.g. `*.coder.example.com`) so that shared users can access workspace apps
  without a 404.
- (Recommended) [IdP Group Sync](../admin/users/idp-sync.md#group-sync)
  configured if your identity provider manages group membership for the teams
  that will share the workspace.

## 1. Create a service account

Create a dedicated service account that will own the shared workspace. Service
accounts are non-human accounts intended for automation and shared ownership.
Because no individual user owns the workspace, there are no personal
credentials to expose and the shared environment is not affected when any user
leaves the team or the organization.

```shell
# On-call example — substitute a name that fits your use case
coder users create \
  --username oncall-sre \
  --service-account
```

## 2. Generate an API token for the service account

Generate a long-lived API token so you can create and manage workspaces on
behalf of the service account:

```shell
coder tokens create \
  --user oncall-sre \
  --name oncall-automation \
  --lifetime 8760h
```

Store this token securely (e.g. in a secrets manager like Vault or AWS Secrets
Manager).

> [!IMPORTANT]
> Never distribute this token to end users. The token is for workspace
> administration only. Shared users authenticate as themselves and reach the
> workspace through sharing.

## 3. Create the workspace

Authenticate as the service account and create the workspace:

```shell
export CODER_SESSION_TOKEN="<token-from-step-2>"

coder create oncall-sre/oncall-workspace \
  --template your-oncall-template \
  --use-parameter-defaults \
  --yes
```

> [!TIP]
> Design a dedicated template for the workspace with the tools your team
> needs pre-installed (e.g. monitoring dashboards for on-call, test runners
> for QA). Set `subdomain = true` on workspace apps so that shared users can
> access web-based tools without a 404. See
> [Accessing workspace apps in shared workspaces](../user-guides/shared-workspaces.md#accessing-workspace-apps-in-shared-workspaces).

## 4. Share the workspace

Use `coder sharing share` to grant access to users who need the workspace:

```shell
coder sharing share oncall-sre/oncall-workspace --user alice
```

This gives `alice` the default `use` role, which allows connection via SSH and
workspace apps, starting and stopping the workspace, and viewing logs and stats.

To grant `admin` permissions (which includes all `use` permissions as well as renaming, updating, and inviting
others to join with the `use` role):

```shell
coder sharing share oncall-sre/oncall-workspace --user alice:admin
```

To share with multiple users at once:

```shell
coder sharing share oncall-sre/oncall-workspace --user alice:admin,bob
```

To share with an entire Coder group:

```shell
coder sharing share oncall-sre/oncall-workspace --group sre-oncall
```

> [!NOTE]
> Groups can be synced from your identity provider using
> [IdP Sync](../admin/users/idp-sync.md#group-sync). If your IdP already
> manages team membership, sharing with a group is the simplest approach.

## 5. Rotate access

When team membership changes, remove outgoing users and add incoming ones:

```shell
# Remove outgoing user
coder sharing remove oncall-sre/oncall-workspace --user alice

# Add incoming user
coder sharing share oncall-sre/oncall-workspace --user carol
```

> [!IMPORTANT]
> The workspace must be restarted for user removal to take effect.

Verify current sharing status at any time:

```shell
coder sharing status oncall-sre/oncall-workspace
```

## 6. Automate access changes (optional)

For use cases with frequent rotation (such as on-call shifts), you can integrate
the share/remove commands into external tooling like PagerDuty, Opsgenie, or a
cron job.

### Rotation script

```shell
#!/bin/bash
# rotate-access.sh
# Usage: ./rotate-access.sh <outgoing-user> <incoming-user>

WORKSPACE="oncall-sre/oncall-workspace"
OUTGOING="$1"
INCOMING="$2"

if [ -n "$OUTGOING" ]; then
  echo "Removing access for $OUTGOING..."
  coder sharing remove "$WORKSPACE" --user "$OUTGOING"
fi

echo "Granting access to $INCOMING..."
coder sharing share "$WORKSPACE" --user "$INCOMING"

echo "Restarting workspace to apply changes..."
coder restart "$WORKSPACE" --yes

echo "Current sharing status:"
coder sharing status "$WORKSPACE"
```

### Group-based rotation with IdP Sync

If your identity provider manages group membership (e.g. an `sre-oncall` group
in Okta or Azure AD), you can skip manual share/remove commands entirely:

1. Configure [Group Sync](../admin/users/idp-sync.md#group-sync) to
   synchronize the group from your IdP to Coder.

1. Share the workspace with the group once:

   ```shell
   coder sharing share oncall-sre/oncall-workspace --group sre-oncall
   ```

1. When your IdP rotates group membership, Coder group membership updates on
   next login. All current members have access; removed members lose access
   after a workspace restart.

## Finding shared workspaces

Shared users can find workspaces shared with them:

```shell
# List all workspaces shared with you
coder list --search shared:true

# List workspaces shared with a specific user
coder list --search shared_with_user:alice

# List workspaces shared with a specific group
coder list --search shared_with_group:sre-oncall
```

## Troubleshooting

### Shared user sees 404 on workspace apps

Workspace apps using path-based routing block non-owners by default. Configure a
[wildcard access URL](../admin/networking/wildcard-access-url.md) and set
`subdomain = true` on the workspace app in your template.

### Removed user still has access

Access removal requires a workspace restart. Run
`coder restart <workspace>` after removing a user or group.

### Group sync not updating membership

Group membership changes in your IdP are not reflected until the user logs out
and back in. Group sync runs at login time, not on a polling schedule. Check the
Coder server logs with
`CODER_LOG_FILTER=".*userauth.*|.*groups returned.*"` for details. See
[Troubleshooting group sync](../admin/users/idp-sync.md#troubleshooting-grouproleorganization-sync)
for more information.

## Next steps

- [Shared Workspaces](../user-guides/shared-workspaces.md) — full reference
  for workspace sharing features and UI
- [IdP Sync](../admin/users/idp-sync.md) — group, role, and organization
  sync configuration
- [Configuring Okta](./configuring-okta.md) — Okta-specific OIDC setup with
  custom claims and scopes
- [Security Best Practices](./best-practices/security-best-practices.md) —
  deployment-wide security hardening
- [Sessions and Tokens](../admin/users/sessions-tokens.md) — API token
  management and scoping