Personalizing GitHub Codespaces for your account

You can personalize GitHub Codespaces by using a dotfiles repository on GitHub or by using Settings Sync.

In this article

About personalizing Codespaces

When using any development environment, customizing the settings and tools to your preferences and workflows is an important step. GitHub Codespaces allows for two main ways of personalizing your codespaces.

  • Settings Sync - You can synchronize your Visual Studio Code settings between the desktop application and the VS Code web client.
  • Dotfiles – You can use a dotfiles repository to specify scripts, shell preferences, and other configurations.

GitHub Codespaces personalization applies to any codespace you create.

Project maintainers can also define a default configuration that applies to every codespace for a repository, created by anyone. For more information, see Introduction to dev containers.

Settings Sync

Settings Sync allows you to synchronize configurations such as settings, keyboard shortcuts, snippets, extensions, and UI state across machines and instances of VS Code. For more information, see Settings Sync in the VS Code documentation.

Your synced settings are cached in the cloud. If Settings Sync is turned on in a codespace, any updates you make to your settings in the codespace are pushed to the cloud, and any updates you push to the cloud from elsewhere are pulled into your codespace.

For example, a common use of Settings Sync would be to sync your settings from your VS Code desktop application, which you use for local work, to codespaces you open in the browser. To do this, you would need to do the following things.

  • Turn on Settings Sync in the desktop application. For more information, see Settings Sync in the VS Code documentation.
  • Enable Settings Sync in your user preferences for GitHub Codespaces. For more information, see Managing your preferences for Settings Sync.
  • Optionally, if you want to sync settings changes back to your desktop application from a codespace, turn on Settings Sync in the codespace and add the repository from which you created the codespace to your list of trusted repositories. For more information, see Turning on Settings Sync in a codespace.

Alternatively, you may want to use the same settings across all codespaces you open in the web client, while leaving your local VS Code application unaffected. To do this, you would need to do the following things.

  • In a codespace, configure your settings as you want them, then turn on Settings Sync in the codespace to push the settings to the cloud. When you do this, Settings Sync is enabled automatically in your user preferences for GitHub Codespaces, so your settings will be pulled into all new codespaces. For more information, see Turning on Settings Sync in a codespace.
  • In the desktop application, leave Settings Sync turned off, or sync your settings to a different account.

About Settings Sync in codespaces

Whether Settings Sync is turned on by default in a codespace, and the relationship between your cached settings and the settings in a codespace, depend on several factors. These factors include the editor in which you open the codespace, your user preferences on GitHub, and your list of trusted repositories.

For codespaces opened in the VS Code desktop application, Settings Sync remains on if you have previously turned on Settings Sync in the application. If Settings Sync is on, your settings are synced both to and from the cloud.

For codespaces opened in the VS Code web client, Settings Sync is disabled by default. This means the VS Code instance in the codespace uses the default theme and settings.

If you use the web client and want your codespaces to use your cached synced settings, you can enable Settings Sync in your user preferences on GitHub. For more information, see Managing your preferences for Settings Sync. Settings Sync is enabled in your user preferences automatically if you open a codespace in the web client and turn on Settings Sync in the codespace.

When Settings Sync is enabled in your user preferences, for codespaces opened in the web client, the behavior of Settings Sync depends on your list of trusted repositories.

  • If you create a codespace from a repository you trust, Settings Sync is turned on in the codespace by default, so your settings are synced both to and from the cloud.

  • If you create a codespace from a repository you haven't added to your list of trusted repositories, the sync takes place in one direction and at one time only. When you create the codespace, your settings are pulled into the codespace from your cached settings in the cloud, but from then on, Settings Sync is turned off in the codespace. This means updates you make to your settings in the codespace are not pushed back to the cloud, and any updates you make to your cached settings from elsewhere are not reflected in the codespace after you have created it.

    If you turn on Settings Sync in a codespace, you will be prompted to add the repository to your list of trusted repositories. For more information, see