vscode-tunnel

What This Skill Does

The vscode-tunnel skill is a powerful utility designed to bridge the gap between containerized development environments and the VS Code desktop experience. By initiating a secure, Microsoft-hosted remote tunnel from within a Docker container, this skill grants users the ability to connect to their containerized terminal and file system directly from their local VS Code interface. It eliminates the need for complex SSH configurations, port forwarding, or custom VPN setups. The skill manages the lifecycle of the VS Code CLI, providing a simple interface to start, stop, check status, and monitor logs for your remote tunnels. Whether you are working in a lightweight Alpine container or a full-featured Ubuntu development environment, this skill ensures your remote development workflow remains fluid and efficient.

Installation

To integrate this skill into your OpenClaw environment, execute the following command in your terminal:

clawhub install openclaw/skills/skills/listky/vscode-tunnel

Ensure that your container environment has 'curl', 'tar', and 'grep' installed, as these are mandatory dependencies for the CLI initialization and status monitoring. Upon installation, the skill automatically handles the environment variables such as 'VSCODE_CLI_DIR', which defaults to '~/.vscode-cli' to keep your home directory organized.

Use Cases

This skill is ideal for developers who utilize Docker containers as their primary workspace. It is particularly useful for:

• Accessing restricted or isolated compute instances without opening public-facing ports.
• Maintaining a consistent VS Code workspace across different host machines while the underlying code resides in a persistent container.
• Enabling remote pairing sessions where multiple developers need to interact with the same container environment securely.
• Streamlining infrastructure-as-code workflows by spinning up ephemeral environments that are instantly reachable via the familiar VS Code UI.

Example Prompts

1. "Start vscode tunnel in the current container and give me the auth code."
2. "Launch a tunnel named production-debug and show me the logs once it is running."
3. "Check the status of my active vscode tunnel and stop it if it is running slowly."

Tips & Limitations

• Authorization: The first time you launch the tunnel, you will receive an authentication code. You must navigate to the provided Microsoft URL in your browser and enter this code to link your account.
• Persistence: Remember that these tunnels run as background processes within the container; if your container restarts, you must trigger the start command again.
• Security: Because this skill uses Microsoft's secure tunnel service, you do not need to expose any ports on your local network, making it a safer alternative to traditional SSH tunneling methods for containerized workloads.