# The Immortal IDE: Building a Free, Always-On GitHub Codespace Alternative **URL:** \ **Category:** Tutorials & Methods\ **Tags:** hacking, cloud-storage, tips-tricks\ **Created:** [June 25, 2025, 1:25am UTC](https://onehack.st/t/the-immortal-ide-building-a-free-always-on-github-codespace-alternative/307254 "2025-06-25T01:25:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Claimspromedical](https://onehack.st/user_avatar/onehack.st/claimspromedical/32/154487_2.png) [@Claimspromedical](https://onehack.st/u/Claimspromedical)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2025, 1:25am UTC](https://onehack.st/t/the-immortal-ide-building-a-free-always-on-github-codespace-alternative/307254/1 "2025-06-25T01:25:14Z")
Hello Everyone, Let’s stop playing games with temporary trials and limited-hour free tiers. GitHub Codespaces is powerful, but the free plan is a leash—it times out, it runs out, and it keeps you on a clock. We can do better. This is a detailed guide to building your own **Immortal IDE** : a personal, powerful, always-on, cloud-based VS Code environment that you can access from any browser, anywhere in the world. It has no idle timeouts and costs **$0.00** , forever. This isn’t a glitch; it’s an architectural exploit of free-tier cloud infrastructure. ### **The Architecture: The “Unbeatable” Free Tier Trinity** This setup works by combining three powerful, free-forever services in a way that creates a professional-grade development environment. 1. **The Compute Engine (`Oracle Cloud Free Tier`):** This is the heart of the exploit. Unlike AWS or Azure whose free tiers are temporary or extremely limited, Oracle offers a genuinely useful “Always Free” tier that includes powerful **Ampere A1 ARM-based compute instances (up to 4 cores and 24GB of RAM!)**. This is more than enough power for serious development, compiling code, and running servers. This is our server. 2. **The IDE (`code-server`):** This is the open-source project that powers VS Code in the browser (and is the foundation of Codespaces). We will install this directly onto our free Oracle VM. 3. **The Secure Gateway (`Cloudflare Tunnel`):** To access our IDE securely from anywhere without exposing our server to the public internet (no open ports, no IP addresses), we’ll use a free Cloudflare Zero Trust Tunnel. This gives us a secure HTTPS URL for our IDE. ### **Step 1: Provision Your Free Supercomputer (Oracle Cloud)** This is the most crucial step. Oracle’s sign-up can be strict, but their Always Free offering is unmatched. 1. Go to the **Oracle Cloud Free Tier** website (`oracle.com/cloud/free/`). 2. Sign up for an account. You will need a credit card for identity verification, but you will **not be charged** as long as you only use resources marked “Always Free”. 3. Once in the dashboard, navigate to **Compute \> Instances**. 4. Click **Create instance**. This is where you configure your free server. - **Name:** Give it a name, e.g., `immortal-ide`. - **Placement:** Leave as is. - **Image and shape:** Click **Edit**. - Click **Change image** and select **Ubuntu** (a recent LTS version is best). - Click **Change shape** and select the **Ampere** category. Choose the `VM.Standard.A1.Flex` shape. - Drag the sliders to allocate resources. You can allocate up to **4 OCPUs (cores) and 24 GB of memory** for free! Start with 2 cores and 8 GB of RAM. - **Networking:** Leave as default. It will create a new virtual cloud network. - **Add SSH keys:** This is how you will log in. Select **“Generate a key pair for me”** and click **Save Private Key** and **Save Public Key**. Keep the private key file safe. 1. Click **Create**. Wait for the instance to be provisioned. Once it’s running, copy its **Public IP Address**. ### **Step 2: Install and Configure the IDE (`code-server`)** Now, we turn our powerful VM into a VS Code instance. 1. **Connect via SSH:** Open a terminal on your computer and use the private key you downloaded to connect. `Bash# Make sure your key is not publicly viewable chmod 400 /path/to/your/privateKey.key # Connect to the instance ssh -i /path/to/your/privateKey.key ubuntu@YOUR\_PUBLIC\_IP\_ADDRESS`2. **Run the Installer:** Once logged into your VM, run this single command. It will download and install`code-server`and set it up to run as a service (so it starts automatically on reboot).`Bashcurl -fsSL [https://code-server.dev/install.sh](https://code-server.dev/install.sh) | sh`3. **Start and Enable the Service:** `Bashsudo systemctl enable --now code-server@$USER`4. **Find Your Password:** `code-server`is now running, but it's protected by a password. View the config file to get it:`Bashcat ~/.config/code-server/config.yaml`Look for the`password:`field and copy it.`code-server`is now running on`localhost:8080` _inside your VM_. Now we need to expose it to the world securely. ### **Step 3: Create the Secure Gateway (Cloudflare Tunnel)** This will give you a secure `https://` URL for your IDE. 1. Sign up for a free Cloudflare account and add a domain you own. (If you don’t own one, you can register a cheap `.xyz` domain for $1). 2. In your Cloudflare dashboard, go to the **Zero Trust** section from the left sidebar. 3. Navigate to **Access \> Tunnels**. Click **Create a tunnel**. 4. Give the tunnel a name (e.g., `vscode-tunnel`) and save it. 5. You’ll be shown commands to install the `cloudflared` connector. In the **Debian** tab, copy the commands and run them in your SSH session on the Oracle VM. This will install the connector and link it to your Cloudflare account. 6. Once connected, you’ll be prompted to set up a **Public Hostname**. - **Subdomain:** Enter something like `ide`. - **Domain:** Select your domain. - **Service \> Type:** Select `HTTP`. - **Service \> URL:** Enter `localhost:8080`. 1. Save the tunnel. ### **The Final Result: Your Immortal IDE** You’re done. Navigate to the subdomain you just created (e.g., `https://ide.yourdomain.com`). You will be greeted by the VS Code login screen. Enter the password you retrieved from the `config.yaml` file. You are now looking at a full VS Code interface running on a powerful, free, always-on cloud server that only you can access. You can install extensions, open a terminal, pull git repos, and run development servers—all from any browser in the world. You have successfully bypassed the commercial limitations and built a superior personal tool by cleverly architecting free-tier services. Enjoy your permanent place in the cloud.