VS Code Remote Development

Develop and live-test your own SPX extensions inside the same Docker image that runs the server, without copying files back and forth.

Requirements ✅

• Docker image is available locally – either built from the repo or pulled from Docker Hub (spx-server).

• Container is running and port 8000 is forwarded to the host.

• Hitting http://localhost:8000 (browser or curl) returns a 200 OK from SPX-Server.

• VS Code with the Remote – Containers extension is installed on your workstation.

Once these checks pass, continue with mounting your extension workspace and attaching VS Code.

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Create (or pick) a workspace for your extensions

1. On your host, make a parent folder for everything you’ll write:

mkdir -p ~/spx_extensions
cd ~/spx_extensions

1. Inside it, add (or clone) any extension packages you’re experimenting with.

Example:

mkdir my_first_extension
touch my_first_extension/__init__.py

You can have many extension sub-folders here; the entire ~/spx_extensions tree will be mounted into the container later.

Add VS Code’s devcontainer description

Create a folder called .devcontainer at the root of your workspace and drop a devcontainer.json file inside:

mkdir .devcontainer
code .devcontainer/devcontainer.json

Paste the snippet below and save.

.devcontainer/devcontainer.json

{
  // VS Code will use this file to build and run the container
  "name": "SPX Server Dev",
  "image": "simplephysx/spx-server:v0.2.1-alpha.2", // tag

  // ports forwarded from container to host
  "forwardPorts": [8000],

  // VS Code settings inside the container
  "customizations": {
    "vscode": {
      // default VS Code settings inside the container
      "settings": {
        // default Python interpreter
        "python.defaultInterpreterPath": "/usr/local/bin/python"
      },
      // extensions to automatically install in the container
      "extensions": [
        "ms-python.python",
        "ms-python.vscode-pylance",
        "ms-python.debugpy"
      ]
    }
  },

  // volumes / bind-mounts (eases working on extensions)
  "mounts": [
    "source=${localWorkspaceFolder}/extensions,target=/app/extensions,type=bind,consistency=cached"
  ]
}

Open the folder inside the container

1. Launch VS Code in your local workspace (code ~/spx_extensions).

2. When the Dev Containers extension prompts “Rebuild and Reopen in Container” or "Rebuild Container", click it.

   VS Code will:

   • attach the container,

   • attach a VS Code server inside.

First build can take a minute or two. Subsequent opens are instant.

Verify the environment

Create hello.py in the workspace root:

hello.py

from spx_sdk import __version__ as sdk_ver
from spx_core import __version__ as core_ver

print("SPX-SDK:", sdk_ver)
print("SPX-Core:", core_ver)

Run it from VS Code

You should see the installed version numbers printed 🎉