2-Week Community Journey: Build Confidence with GitHub Codespaces & the API - Part 1️⃣

[shinybrightstar]

Part 1️⃣ – Grounding: Hello, Portable Dev Environment

We recently started a two-week community series: Reduce Dev Environment Friction in 10 Minutes a Week. This week, we're going deeper. The goal is to get you trying your first Codespace and playing with a few API calls. Taking that first step can shift you from uncertainty to clarity. Why does it matter? Because the fastest way to save time is letting go of fragile local setups.

📘 What You’ll Learn:

• A Codespace is a dev environment in the cloud, tied to your repo.
• A devcontainer.json is like a recipe for your tools + settings.
• The API lets you script things like create, list, and clean up.

🧪 Just a few to start — enough to explore without overload:

• List your codespaces → GET /user/codespaces
• Create a codespace → POST /repos/{owner}/{repo}/codespaces
• Stop or delete a codespace →
  • Stop: POST /user/codespaces/{codespace_name}/stop
  • Delete: DELETE /user/codespaces/{codespace_name}

Bonus if curious:

• Check machine defaults → GET /repos/{owner}/{repo}/codespaces/new

✅ Quick Wins (Pick Any)

• Open a Codespace from the GitHub UI. Write down one thing that surprised you.
• Run gh api /user/codespaces to list your Codespaces. Spot one JSON field you didn’t expect.

    gh api /user/codespaces

• Stop or delete a Codespace you’re not using — and enjoy reclaiming control.
• Compare machine types with the Get default attributes endpoint.

🚀 Feeling Adventurous?

Try a tiny script that:

• Lists your Codespaces
• Starts one if it’s stopped
• Prints its state

Even just skimming this script counts as progress. (click to expand)

#!/bin/bash

# List Codespaces
echo "Listing Codespaces:"
gh codespace list

# Get the name of the first Codespace
CODESPACE=$(gh codespace list --json name,state -q '.[] | select(.state=="Stopped") | .name' | head -n 1)

if [ -n "$CODESPACE" ]; then
  echo "Starting Codespace: $CODESPACE"
  gh codespace start -c "$CODESPACE"
  STATE=$(gh codespace list --json name,state -q ".[] | select(.name==\"$CODESPACE\") | .state")
  echo "Codespace $CODESPACE state: $STATE"
else
  echo "No stopped Codespaces found. Printing all Codespaces' states:"
  gh codespace list --json name,state -q '.[] | "\(.name): \(.state)"'
fi

1. Save the script to manage-codespaces.sh
2. Make it executable by runing chmod +x manage-codespaces.sh
3. Run it with this command ./manage-codespaces.sh

🤔 Reflection

Instead of asking “Did I finish everything?” → ask: 👉 “Did I reduce friction today?”
(Example: deleting a Codespace I didn’t need, or realizing I can script one.)

🗣️ Share one JSON field from your Codespaces API response that you didn’t expect — and why it might matter.

---

📚 Helpful Resources

• 📖 GitHub Codespaces overview
• ⚡ Quickstart: Codespaces with GitHub CLI
• 🧩 Codespaces REST API reference

[asimhusain-ai]

I just gave Codespaces a try for the first time and it really clicked why people recommend them. A couple of quick notes from my experience:

What surprised me: when I listed my codespaces with gh api /user/codespaces, the JSON response included a last_used_at field. I didn’t expect that — but it’s actually useful for spotting which environments I’ve ignored for weeks and should probably delete.

Quick win: I deleted an old Codespace that I wasn’t using anymore. Small step, but it felt good to reclaim a bit of control instead of letting things pile up.

Reflection: This made me realize it’s less about “mastering every endpoint” right away, and more about building the habit of reducing friction. Even knowing I can script start/stop commands is already a productivity boost.

Curious if others noticed any surprising JSON fields too — for me, that last_used_at was a reminder that clean-up can be scripted just as easily as creation.

[shinybrightstar]

This is good to hear @asimhusain-ai

[shinybrightstar]

Hi everyone 👋

Part 2️⃣ of our learning series Personal Flow: Customizing & Securing Your Environment is now available!

Be sure to check it out, and we’d love to hear from you. ❤️

[shinybrightstar]

Hey 👋

We’re excited to share that Part 3️⃣ – Team & Organization: Shared Standards and Access is now live!

👉 Check it out here: https://github.com/orgs/community/discussions/174467

Your voice matters and we’d love to hear from you! 🧩✨

[shinybrightstar]

Part 4️⃣ is here, and it’s all about small wins that scale.

We’re talking about the little scripts and automations that save time, reduce mess, and make your future self’s life easier.

Drop your thoughts in the comments. You might just inspire someone else (or find your next side project).

👉 Check it out here: https://github.com/orgs/community/discussions/174757