Work with cloud workspaces

Use this page when you have a cloud workspace and want to sync files, open terminals, forward ports, or wake the cloud machine. If you have not created a cloud workspace yet, start with Get started with cloud workspaces.

The cloud workspace panel

Every cloud workspace shows a Cloud workspace badge in the top bar. Click it to open the cloud workspace panel. The panel includes:

• Workspace status and resource usage.
• The Sync files toggle.
• Port forwarding.
• A restart control for the cloud machine.

Work with cloud files on your Mac

Cloud workspace files live on the cloud machine, so local tools cannot see them by default. To use your editor, linters, or scripts with those files:

1. Open the cloud workspace panel from the top bar.
2. Turn on Sync files.

Conductor mirrors the workspace's files to a local folder. Treat the mirror as read only: it works well for browsing code, running local analysis, and pointing local tools at the files. Edits you make in the mirror do not sync back to the cloud workspace. To change files, work through the agent or a cloud terminal.

Open terminals

Cloud workspaces support two terminal types. Pick one when you open a new terminal in the terminal panel:

• Cloud terminal: runs on the cloud machine, in the workspace itself. Use this for anything that should run where the agent runs, such as dev servers, builds, and tests.
• Local terminal: runs on your Mac with the synced files. Use this for local tooling that reads those files. Local edits do not sync back.

Video summary: Open cloud and local terminals

The video shows opening a cloud terminal on the cloud machine and a local terminal from the terminal panel.

Preview a dev server

To open a server running in the cloud workspace from your Mac's browser, start the server in a cloud terminal, then add its port under Forward ports in the cloud workspace panel. Conductor assigns a local port and shows the localhost link to open.

Wake a sleeping workspace

Idle cloud machines go to sleep to save resources. To wake one, use the restart control in the cloud workspace panel or on the workspace's status icon in the sidebar. Files and conversation state stay in the cloud while a workspace sleeps, and sleeping workspaces do not count against your running workspace limit.

Video summary: Restart a cloud workspace

The video shows using the cloud workspace panel to restart a cloud machine.