Skip to content

Launch a Web IDE

Clone a repository and instantly open it in a browser-based VS Code instance.

Basic Usage

charcoal up --ide https://github.com/octocat/hello-world.git

The IDE is served at http://localhost:3000. Charcoal keeps the container alive until you press Ctrl+C.

Options

Flag Default Description
--port 3000 Host port for the Web IDE
--branch — Git branch to clone

Custom Port

charcoal up --ide --port 8080 https://github.com/octocat/hello-world.git

Specific Branch

charcoal up --ide --branch develop https://github.com/octocat/hello-world.git

Shell-Only Mode

Omit --ide to clone the repo and open an interactive bash shell inside the container:

charcoal up https://github.com/octocat/hello-world.git

Convenience Syntax

If the first argument starts with http or git@, Charcoal auto-inserts the up command:

charcoal https://github.com/octocat/hello-world.git
# Equivalent to: charcoal up https://github.com/octocat/hello-world.git