I am not the best person regarding the negative sides of Codespaces. As I mentioned, our team provides different tools for developers, so we are not so deep in every tool. From time to time, we got some feedback from developers about their usage patterns, but I just don't have any numbers and don't have any summary. Regarding the issues that they report most frequently, there is definitely no one single issue from the top of my head. There are some small wishes, but I cannot remember anything specific.
I think there should be a scheduler option if you want to run it, similar to Google Cloud, where you can specify how long you want to keep your scheduling active. If you want to use it as a server or for a temporary time duration, you should be able to schedule it so the server will be activated between specific durations and auto-deactivate to save costs. Sometimes, at the initial stages, there is a lack of instances. It takes more time to create the instance, but now it's much faster to activate your Codespaces and delete it. The earlier Git Codespaces billing setup on GitHub was much simpler. You could easily see how much credit you have, how much you have used, and your balance. Now they have changed it, and it's confusing to understand how much Codespaces time you have, how much you have used, and how much they are charging.
Technical Writer at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Top 20
Jul 1, 2025
I don't recognize what compute resources are in relation to my projects in Codespaces. I'm looking at Codespaces to help myself express what I mean regarding pre-configured environments. I don't think they were pre-configured. When I created an environment, we had a list of extensions that my team decided to use. These were the main things that I had to configure to ensure we are on the same page, including spell checking and so on. My issues with Codespaces were mostly due to my inexperience with GitHub, and I did not understand certain aspects. I think there was a learning curve. As a beginner, you can get lost in the user interface because of the many screens, buttons, and functionalities geared towards power users, making it difficult to find particular icons you're looking for. Initially, it was intimidating, and I had to learn conventions such as how to interpret certain document displays when changing branches. There's one particular issue where if you commit without a title for a commit, you get a message that opens a document, preventing you from committing until you close that message. It was frustrating not knowing I had to close it, thinking the commit process was ongoing. I don't have much criticism because these functionalities have purpose, and as I get to use more advanced features, they come in handy. I look forward to that. However, for a beginner, it is intimidating to search for options when many are available. Additionally, I did not participate in any training or use training material, instead relying on advice from experienced users, which also explains my stumbling at times. I don't feel I lack any specific features or functionalities in Codespaces. I'm not yet familiar with all extensions and how to fully utilize them. Currently, I have basic spell-checking extensions, which are not very intelligent; they just include some basic word lists. It's sufficient for me.
Co-Founder & Chief Technology Officer at Livecycle
Real User
Top 5
Nov 25, 2024
The main issue is related to state preservation on a disconnection. When I close the laptop and open it in a different place, the state of the environment disappears, and I need to rerun several commands. This context switch affects productivity.
The product indicates incorrect statistics. Once, I compared its statistics result for a data set with that from Google. The main part of the answer provided by Codespaces was inaccurate. They should improve this particular feature.
Codespaces enhances developer collaboration through seamless integration with existing codebases and automatic setup. Its robust feature set, designed for efficiency, also promotes a local-like experience with Visual Studio Code.Codespaces offers a remote development environment tailored for repository management, CI/CD integration, and deployment processes. With quick setup enabled by pre-installed dependencies, it supports flexible workflows like coding, branching, and merging, as well as...
I am not the best person regarding the negative sides of Codespaces. As I mentioned, our team provides different tools for developers, so we are not so deep in every tool. From time to time, we got some feedback from developers about their usage patterns, but I just don't have any numbers and don't have any summary. Regarding the issues that they report most frequently, there is definitely no one single issue from the top of my head. There are some small wishes, but I cannot remember anything specific.
I think there should be a scheduler option if you want to run it, similar to Google Cloud, where you can specify how long you want to keep your scheduling active. If you want to use it as a server or for a temporary time duration, you should be able to schedule it so the server will be activated between specific durations and auto-deactivate to save costs. Sometimes, at the initial stages, there is a lack of instances. It takes more time to create the instance, but now it's much faster to activate your Codespaces and delete it. The earlier Git Codespaces billing setup on GitHub was much simpler. You could easily see how much credit you have, how much you have used, and your balance. Now they have changed it, and it's confusing to understand how much Codespaces time you have, how much you have used, and how much they are charging.
I don't recognize what compute resources are in relation to my projects in Codespaces. I'm looking at Codespaces to help myself express what I mean regarding pre-configured environments. I don't think they were pre-configured. When I created an environment, we had a list of extensions that my team decided to use. These were the main things that I had to configure to ensure we are on the same page, including spell checking and so on. My issues with Codespaces were mostly due to my inexperience with GitHub, and I did not understand certain aspects. I think there was a learning curve. As a beginner, you can get lost in the user interface because of the many screens, buttons, and functionalities geared towards power users, making it difficult to find particular icons you're looking for. Initially, it was intimidating, and I had to learn conventions such as how to interpret certain document displays when changing branches. There's one particular issue where if you commit without a title for a commit, you get a message that opens a document, preventing you from committing until you close that message. It was frustrating not knowing I had to close it, thinking the commit process was ongoing. I don't have much criticism because these functionalities have purpose, and as I get to use more advanced features, they come in handy. I look forward to that. However, for a beginner, it is intimidating to search for options when many are available. Additionally, I did not participate in any training or use training material, instead relying on advice from experienced users, which also explains my stumbling at times. I don't feel I lack any specific features or functionalities in Codespaces. I'm not yet familiar with all extensions and how to fully utilize them. Currently, I have basic spell-checking extensions, which are not very intelligent; they just include some basic word lists. It's sufficient for me.
The main issue is related to state preservation on a disconnection. When I close the laptop and open it in a different place, the state of the environment disappears, and I need to rerun several commands. This context switch affects productivity.
We get merge conflict errors and need to resolve them.
The product indicates incorrect statistics. Once, I compared its statistics result for a data set with that from Google. The main part of the answer provided by Codespaces was inaccurate. They should improve this particular feature.