Visual Studio Code Remote Tunnels allows developers to connect to a remote machine to build applications.

Everything runs in your remote machine, you don't need to set up development dependencies, whitelist access, checkout codes, run SSH, etc.

All you need to a local machine that runs VS Code with the same Github/Microsoft account.

Demo

Here's a demo using a Windows PC as the local machine, and a Macbook as the remote machine.

  1. First set up the Remote Tunnels Extension on both machines.

  2. log in to Github, and enable the remote tunnel access

  3. At this point, you should be able to see the remote machine but appears offline.

  4. Click connect to establish the connection. When you do this for the first time, it might take a while to complete. You will also be redirected to Github to authorize remote access.

  5. Once the process is completed, now you will see an active remote machine.

  6. Now you can start coding!

    You will notice it is as if you are using your remote machine. For example, the application path is a Mac path, the terminal is running on Mac as well.

    Have fun. :)

  7. To clean up, just log out from your GitHub account. You don't leave behind any codes, any credentials, or any env files.