gitpod-io / gitpod-io/gitpod

Simplify SSH host - for memorising, constructing from URL, and pasting into SSH clients

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#11,355 3 comments 3 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

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aspect: ephemeral component: ssh gateway feature: ssh meta: never-stale team: IDE
Dominant language
TypeScript
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Description

One current advantage of the SSH private key connection is that the URL is more stable than before, where you needed to go back to dashboard and copy/paste the access token (which reset on each workspace start).

New SSH key connection format:

Format: {workspace-id}@{workspace-id}.{ssh-subdomain}.{workspace-generation}.{TLD}
Example: gitpodio-website-25tzkerndba@gitpodio-website-25tzkerndba.ssh.ws-eu54.gitpod.io

The new SSH connection is now more stable, but there are still some aspects which could be refined:

  1. Generation included in the name e.g. .ws-eu54.gitpod.io - For new generations this means the URL changes, and it's also not easy to know what the URL will be without starting a workspace and checking the URL.
  2. Duplication of the workspace-id - If possible, it would be better to remove this duplication, for users who want to "memorise" the SSH pattern and/or construct it themselves intuitively using the workspace ID (use case / example: when breaking apart the connection string to paste into SSH clients with username, host, as separate files)
  3. Inclusion of the ssh subdomain - Having a separate URL for SSH is helpful, but also adds additional friction when constructing the URL For other clients, and/or trying to remember the pattern. However, this aspect is probably the least impacting on friction.

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by reviewing the current SSH connection format and the three friction points described: workspace generation, duplicated workspace IDs, and the ssh subdomain. Determine the intended simpler format and how it remains stable across workspace generations; the issue is done when the format and its construction workflow are defined and implemented accordingly.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Domain
developer-experience
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
25/100

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