Coder
Self-hosted cloud development environments defined in Terraform (VMs, Kubernetes pods or Docker containers) for developers and coding agents, with a control-plane-hosted agent loop so workspaces hold no model credentials. The leading open-source, self-hosted workspace platform for agents and developers, with isolation as strong as the Terraform templates you write.
Overview
Coder is an AGPL-3.0 open-source platform (17.3k GitHub stars) for self-hosted development environments. Admins write Terraform templates that provision a workspace as an EC2 VM, a Kubernetes pod, a Docker container or any other resource; developers create workspaces from those templates in the UI or with coder create, connect over a WireGuard tunnel from VS Code, JetBrains, Cursor or the web terminal, and workspaces shut down automatically when idle. The control plane must be hosted by you in a private data centre or cloud. Because the infrastructure is yours, isolation is whatever the template gives you — a VM, a pod or a container.
For agents, Coder Agents (the successor to Coder Tasks, which was deprecated in v2.34 and removed) runs the agent loop in the control plane: the LLM provider (Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, Azure, Bedrock or any OpenAI-compatible endpoint) is called from the control plane and only tool calls traverse the existing workspace tunnel, so "the workspace itself has no knowledge of AI" and holds no credentials. Terminal agents such as Claude Code or Codex can also be installed into templates via registry modules, and Agent Relay (beta) lets Cursor Cloud Agents and Claude Code drive self-hosted workspaces. The Community edition is free with up to five active Coder Agents; Premium (per user, annual, price unpublished) adds RBAC, audit logging, AI Gateway and Agent Firewall; AI Premium adds unlimited headless agents triggered via API.
Notable
- Licensed AGPL-3.0 with a separate enterprise licence file; 17.3k stars on GitHub.
- Coder Tasks was deprecated in v2.34 and its API and CLI removed; Coder Agents and the Chats API (
/api/v2/chats) replace it. - Community edition is free with unlimited self-hosted workspaces and up to 5 active Coder Agents.
Coder specifications
| Attribute | Details |
|---|---|
| Isolation | Whatever your Terraform template provisions — "EC2 VMs, Kubernetes Pods, Docker Containers, etc." — connected to the control plane over a WireGuard tunnel; isolation strength is set by the template, not by Coder |
| Deployment | Open-source project · Self-hostable |
| Open source | Yes (AGPL-3.0) |
| SDKs and interfaces | CLI, REST API, MCP server |
| Cold start (vendor claim) | Not documented |
| Max session length | Workspaces "shut down automatically when idle"; autostop schedules are template-defined, no fixed maximum |
| Persistence | Workspaces are long-lived resources that stop and start; persistent disks and home volumes depend on the template (for example Kubernetes PVCs or EC2 volumes) |
| GPU | Depends on the infrastructure your templates target; Coder itself does not provision GPUs |
| Networking | Workspaces connect outbound to the control plane via WireGuard/Tailnet with no inbound ports; templates can restrict egress, and the docs recommend agent templates with stricter egress since the agent loop needs no LLM access from the workspace; Premium Agent Firewall adds process-level network and command policies |
| Pricing | Community edition free (unlimited self-hosted workspaces, up to 5 active Coder Agents, 1 platform integration); Premium priced annually per user (figure not published); AI Premium custom pricing with unlimited agents and headless API-triggered agent jobs |
| Free tier | Free to self-host (Community edition) |
| Compliance | Not documented |
| Regions | Anywhere you host it: AWS, Azure, GCP, Kubernetes, Hetzner, OVHcloud, VMware or a private data centre |
Facts from Coder’s public documentation, verified November 9, 2026. Performance numbers are vendor claims.
Strengths and trade-offs
Strengths
- You want agent workspaces on infrastructure you already run (Kubernetes, EC2, Docker) under an open-source control plane
- You need the agent loop and model credentials kept out of the workspace, with network-isolated agent templates
- You run both developers and agents side by side with RBAC, audit logs and policy enforcement
Trade-offs
- Not a hosted service: you operate the control plane, provisioners and the infrastructure behind every workspace
- Isolation, startup time and persistence all depend on your templates rather than being guaranteed by Coder
- Premium pricing is not published; agent counts are capped at 5 below the AI Premium tier
- Coder Tasks was removed, so older agent integrations need migrating to Coder Agents
Good fit for: Organisations that want to run coding agents in self-hosted workspaces on their own clusters and clouds with audit and governance.
Use cases Coder fits
- Coding agents: Open-source, self-hosted workspaces on your own clusters and clouds, with Coder Agents for running coding agents under audit and governance.
- Enterprise & BYOC: Self-hosted on your own clusters and clouds, with audit and governance for coding agents.
How Coder compares
| Sandbox | Isolation | Open source | Self-host / BYOC | Cold start (vendor) | Max session | Snapshots / pause | GPU | SDKs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coder | Template-defined (VM/pod/container) | Yes | Yes / No | Not documented | Not documented | Not documented / Yes | Not documented | CLI, REST API, MCP server |
| Ona (formerly Gitpod) | Dedicated cloud VM | No | No / Yes | Not documented | Not documented | Not documented / Yes | Yes | Python, JavaScript/TypeScript, Go, CLI, REST API |
| GitHub Codespaces | Dedicated VM per codespace | No | No / No | Not documented | 12 h, 30 min idle | No / Yes | No | CLI, REST API |
| Control Plane Sandboxes | Container (runtime not named) | No | Yes / Yes | 60-90 s | Not documented | Not documented / Yes | Not documented | CLI |
| Daytona | Containers or VMs | No | Not documented / Yes | <90 ms | Unlimited | Yes / Yes | Yes | Python, TypeScript, Ruby, Go, Java |
| OpenHands Runtime | Docker container | Yes | Yes / No | Not documented | Not documented | Not documented / Not documented | Not documented | Python, JavaScript/TypeScript, REST API |
Frequently asked questions
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Sources
Cite this page
Agent Sandboxes. (2026). Coder. agentsandboxes.org. Last reviewed November 9, 2026. https://agentsandboxes.org/sandboxes/coder/
Found an error or a missing sandbox? Submit a correction — every entry links to the sources it relies on.