Introduction
A codespace is a development environment that's hosted in the cloud. You can customize your project for GitHub Codespaces by committing configuration files to your repository (often known as Configuration-as-Code), which creates a repeatable codespace configuration for all users of your project. See Introduction to dev containers.
Each codespace you create is hosted by GitHub in a Docker container, running on a virtual machine. You can choose from a selection of virtual machine types, from 2 cores, 8 GB RAM, and 32 GB storage, up to 32 cores, 128 GB RAM, and 128 GB storage.
By default, the codespace development environment is created from an Ubuntu Linux image that includes a selection of popular languages and tools, but you can use an image based on a Linux distribution of your choice and configure it for your particular requirements. Regardless of your local operating system, your codespace will run in a Linux environment. Windows and macOS are not supported operating systems for the remote development container.
You can connect to your codespaces from your browser, from Visual Studio Code, or by using GitHub CLI. When you connect, you are placed within the Docker container. You have limited access to the outer Linux virtual machine host.
Using GitHub Codespaces
To begin developing using cloud-based compute resources, you can create a codespace from a template or from any branch or commit in a repository. When you create a codespace from a template, you can start from a blank template or choose a template suitable for the work you're doing.
To get started with GitHub Codespaces, see Quickstart for GitHub Codespaces. For more information on creating a codespace, see Creating a codespace for a repository or Creating a codespace from a template. If you want to return to a codespace you've already created, see Opening an existing codespace. To learn more about how GitHub Codespaces works, see Deep dive into GitHub Codespaces.
Using codespaces owned by your personal account
All personal GitHub accounts have a monthly quota of free use of GitHub Codespaces included in the Free or Pro plan. You can get started using GitHub Codespaces on your personal account without changing any settings or providing payment details.
If you create a codespace from an organization-owned repository, use of the codespace will either be charged to the organization (if the organization is configured for this), or to your personal account.
You can continue using GitHub Codespaces beyond your monthly included storage and compute usage by providing payment details and setting a spending limit. See GitHub Codespaces billing.