Remote Dev Kit

Run and hot-reload your project on a remote VPS, from inside VS Code. No local Docker, no containers on your laptop, and your code never leaves your machine.

Install from the VS Code Marketplace

What it does

Point it at any project with a Dockerfile and it becomes a one-click remote dev environment.

Deploy builds the image on the VPS and serves it at https://<project>.dev.yourdomain.com with a real certificate. Nothing is built locally.

Watch live-syncs your edits into the running container, so your dev server reloads as you type. Your source stays on your machine; only the changes travel.

The sidebar shows a status dot per service, every URL the stack exposes, and puts logs and a shell one click away.

Stop keeps your database. Destroy wipes images and volumes, and tells you so before it does it.

It drives Docker over a remote SSH context, which is why you don't need Docker Desktop, just the docker CLI.

Requirements

• A VPS with Docker installed, and passwordless SSH to it
• The docker CLI locally, no daemon needed (brew install docker)
• A wildcard DNS record, *.dev.yourdomain.com pointing at the VPS

The DNS record is set once and covers every project you'll ever deploy.

Getting started

1. Install the extension and open a project that has a Dockerfile.
2. The sidebar offers Set Up This Project. Click it.
3. Answer two questions — project name and URL. Both are pre-filled.
4. Click Deploy.

The first run also asks for your SSH target and wildcard domain. Once, ever. Every later project reuses them.

There is no settings screen to visit. Everything else is detected:

Configuration

Setup writes one file to your project, .env.remote, and adds it to git's exclude list so your SSH target is never committed.

This is the same file the rdk CLI reads. Configure it here and rdk up in a terminal does exactly the same thing; run rdk init in a terminal and the extension picks it up on sight. One source of truth, either way.

Edit it by hand whenever you like. The extension watches the file and re-reads it on save. If it still contains rdk init placeholders, the sidebar names the keys that need fixing.

Six global VS Code settings sit under rdk.*: vpsSsh, baseDomain, acmeEmail, proxyNetwork, certResolver, certEntrypoint. The setup wizard fills them in, so you shouldn't need to open Settings at all.

Works with any stack

Nothing here is Django-specific. Point it at any Dockerfile (Node, Vite, Next, Go, Rust, static) and deploy. Services stay private; only the web port is exposed through the proxy.

Relationship to the CLI

This is the GUI companion to remote-dev-kit. Same engine underneath: a remote Docker context, Traefik, and bundled compose stacks. Doctor and Security audit in the sidebar shell out to rdk doctor and rdk audit when the CLI is installed.

Contributing

Local development, packaging and release steps are in CONTRIBUTING.md.

License

MIT