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Connecting to a cloud workstation

This article helps you connect to your personal Outerbounds workstation.

First, make sure you can see at least one workstation in your Workspace. If the view is empty, reporting 0 Workstations, start by setting up a cloud workstation, asking your platform administrator for help if needed.

Connecting to a cloud workstation with VSCode IDE​

Workstations integrate seamlessly to the popular Visual Studio Code IDE through a VSCode Extension. If you don't have VSCode already installed, start by downloading it for free here. All operating systems, Linux, OS X, and Windows, are supported.

Choose a workstation in your Workspace and click How to connect in the upper right corner. Follow the steps shown in the video, which are also described below:

  1. In VSCode, click the Extensions icon, search for Outerbounds, and install the Outerbounds extension (alternatively, you can find it here.

  2. Click Authenticate to Outerbounds, copy your personal authentication token, and paste it in the extension prompt asking for credentials.

  3. Click the O icon on the left, and refresh the workstations list if you don;t see your workstations there already. A list of workstations available to you should show up.

  4. Choose a workstation on the list and click Connect.

  5. A new window will open, connecting to your cloud workstation. It may take a minute for the window to load for the first time, as the workstation is being set up.

  6. After this, the workstation is ready for use. You can start executing flows on the workstation - see Get Started for examples! 🎉

Next time you want to connect to your workstation, just open the extension inside VSCode and click Connect.

The workstation window is connected to the cloud

The VSCode workstation window is connected to your personal cloud instance, independent of your laptop. You can verify this connection by checking the lower left corner of the VSCode window, which displays a message like workstation in ws-834abbc.

Using a cloud workstation in the browser with VSCode Web​

Coming soon

Reach out to your support Slack if you want to join the private beta of VSCode Web