40 lines
3.1 KiB
Markdown
40 lines
3.1 KiB
Markdown
---
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title: GitHub Codespaces overview
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shortTitle: Overview
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intro: 'This guide introduces {% data variables.product.prodname_codespaces %} and provides details on how it works and how to use it.'
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allowTitleToDifferFromFilename: true
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redirect_from:
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- /codespaces/codespaces-reference/about-codespaces
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versions:
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free-pro-team: '*'
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type: quick_start
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topics:
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- Codespaces
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---
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## What is a codespace?
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A codespace is a development environment that's hosted in the cloud. You can customize your project for {% data variables.product.prodname_codespaces %} by committing [configuration files](/codespaces/customizing-your-codespace/configuring-codespaces-for-your-project) to your repository (often known as Configuration-as-Code), which creates a repeatable codespace configuration for all users of your project.
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{% data variables.product.prodname_codespaces %} run on a variety of VM-based compute options hosted by {% data variables.product.product_location %}, that you can configure from 2 core machines up to 32 core machines. You can connect to your codespaces from the browser or locally using {% data variables.product.prodname_vscode %}.
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## Using Codespaces
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You can create a codespace from any branch or commit in your repository and begin developing using cloud-based compute resources.
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To customize the runtimes and tools in your codespace, you can create a custom configuration to define an environment (or _dev container_) that is specific for your repository. Using a dev container allows you to specify a Docker environment for development with a well-defined tool and runtime stack that can reference an image, Dockerfile, or docker-compose. This means that anyone using the repository will have the same tools available to them when they create a codespace.
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If you don't do any custom configuration, {% data variables.product.prodname_codespaces %} will clone your repository into an environment with the default codespace image that includes many tools, languages, and runtime environments. For more information, see "[Configuring Codespaces for your project](/codespaces/setting-up-your-codespace/configuring-codespaces-for-your-project)".
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You can also personalize aspects of your codespace environment by using a public [dotfiles](https://dotfiles.github.io/tutorials/) repository and [Settings Sync](https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/editor/settings-sync). Personalization can include shell preferences, additional tools, editor settings, and VS Code extensions. For more information, see "[Customizing your codespace](/codespaces/customizing-your-codespace)".
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## About billing for {% data variables.product.prodname_codespaces %}
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{% data reusables.codespaces.about-billing-for-codespaces %} For more information, see "[About billing for {% data variables.product.prodname_codespaces %}](/github/developing-online-with-codespaces/about-billing-for-codespaces)."
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## Joining the beta
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A limited number of people will be invited to join the beta. To join the waitlist, see [Sign up for the Codespaces beta](https://github.com/features/codespaces/signup).
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