CodeYam Editor in GitHub Codespaces

Click the button to try the CodeYam Editor with nothing installed on your own machine. It runs in a GitHub codespace, a Linux machine GitHub hosts for you and opens in your browser.

What happens when you click it

GitHub asks for nothing when it creates the codespace: there is no API key to fill in. You sign in to the AI inside the editor.

1. The codespace installs everything. That means the editor, the Claude Code CLI, and a browser for screenshots. The first time takes a few minutes. A welcome page explains what is happening while you wait.
2. Wait for the link in the terminal. When the editor is ready, the terminal panel at the bottom of the window shows a boxed "CodeYam Editor is ready" with a link. Cmd+click it (Ctrl+click on Windows or Linux).
3. The editor opens on the New Project screen. Pick the AI that should build, sign in to it, then describe what you want to build. The editor builds it with you against a live preview.

This repository is intentionally almost empty: no app, no .codeyam/. Your project is created inside the codespace the first time the editor starts.

Keeping your work

A codespace made from this template is not connected to a repository of your own yet. To keep what you build, open the codespace's Source Control panel and choose Publish to GitHub. That creates a repository under your account. This template is never changed.

Good to know

• Who can see the editor: only you. GitHub keeps the editor's port private and asks you to sign in to GitHub before it lets anyone through. If you make the port public, the editor starts requiring its own one-time token.
• Stopping and restarting: your files are kept, and the editor comes back on the same address when the codespace restarts.
• Signing in to Claude: the editor shows a link. Open it, approve access, and paste the code it gives you back into the editor. A rebuilt codespace asks you to sign in again; a stopped and restarted one does not.
• Using Codex, Gemini or OpenCode instead: pick it in the editor and paste its API key there. The key is saved with your project. If you already keep it as a Codespaces secret (OPENAI_API_KEY, GEMINI_API_KEY or OPENCODE_API_KEY under GitHub's Settings → Codespaces → Secrets, with access to this codespace's repository), the editor uses it and skips that step.

How this template is made

The files in .devcontainer/ (devcontainer.json, the welcome page codeyam-welcome.md, and codeyam-ready.sh, which prints the editor's link) are generated by codeyam-editor editor devcontainer-setup run in an empty directory. They are not written by hand, so they match what existing projects get. The editor repository runs a drift check against them. To regenerate them, run that command in an empty folder and copy its .devcontainer/ here.

The codespace installs the editor from npm at the production latest tag. To try unreleased builds, use codeyam-ai/codespaces-starter-staging, which is the same template rendered with --channel staging.