Codespaces Customizable Initial Experience

A development container allows you to create a full-featured development environment to use in your codespace. Codespaces use the devcontainer.json file to define the environment you will be working in within your codespace. We've added new features to devcontainers.json to help you customize the initial experience when you open a codespace.

Define the initial layout of your codespace with openFiles

You can use openFiles to define what files are open by default. If you specify multiple files, the files will open up in order from left to right. The first file defined will be the focused file. openFiles is specific to the Codespaces customization, and is only enabled in the Codespaces web editor for now. Use openFiles to improve your default development environment and ensure that you're setting contributors up for success!

Run scripts after your client connects to your codespace with postAttachCommand

postAttachCommand enables you to run scripts in the terminal after your client connects to the codespace. This change enables you to define multiple postAttachCommand definitions and they will run on separate terminals. This enables you to start your server and watch for changing files after launch from your devcontainer.json.

Combine these features into a full initial codespace experience

These changes to postAttachCommand, combined with the existing openPreview option in the onAutoForward property, enable you to create codespaces with a default layout that ensures a great Codespaces launch experience for users of your repository.

Read more about postAttachCommand, onAutoForward, openFiles, and openPreview on our docs pages!