comparison
reachpad vs GitHub Codespaces
Both are a Linux environment in the cloud with your repository in it. Codespaces is shaped around a developer in VS Code: it starts from a repo, stops when you stop typing, and forwards ports to you. reachpad is shaped around an agent: it stays up while the agent works, its disk outlives the machine, and it exposes ports to other people.
Side by side
| GitHub Codespaces | reachpad | |
|---|---|---|
| Starts from | A GitHub repository and a devcontainer.json | Nothing, a repository, or a fork of another workspace |
| Built for | A person in VS Code or a browser editor | An agent driven from a terminal or an MCP, with a person watching |
| Idle behaviour | Stops after an idle timeout, 30 minutes by default | Runs until paused or its active window ends |
| Port forwarding | To you, or shared with your organisation or publicly | A link for anyone signed in to reachpad |
| Persistence | The container's disk persists until the codespace is deleted; rebuilds reset it | The disk is sealed and outlives the VM; files, installs and git state come back |
| Agents | Copilot in the editor, or anything you install | Claude Code and Codex preinstalled, or anything you install |
| Sharing the environment | Not with another person | Per-person grants: viewer, or collaborator in your session |
| Which git host | GitHub | Any remote |
GitHub documents Codespaces at github.com/features/codespaces. The rows above describe it as documented on 23 August 2026.
The difference that matters
Codespaces is a reproducible checkout for a human. The devcontainer.json says what the environment is, so every teammate gets the same one, and the idle timeout keeps the bill down when the human walks away. An agent can run inside it, but the environment assumes someone is sitting there.
reachpad assumes the opposite: the interesting work happens while nobody is sitting there. The agent runs for an hour, the workspace stays up for it, and when it is done the app is running on a port that the next person can open. The idle timeout that makes Codespaces cheap is the thing that would kill that run.
The other difference is what the environment is for afterwards. A codespace ends in a commit. A reachpad workspace can end in a commit too, but it can also end in an app that five people are using, which nothing about Codespaces is built to serve.
When GitHub Codespaces is the right answer
When the job is a reproducible checkout of one GitHub repository for a person in VS Code, and the organisation already pays for GitHub. When the devcontainer.json is the contract the team maintains. When the work is a pull request and nothing has to keep running after it. If that is the shape, Codespaces is already set up and reachpad is for the work that outlives the editor session.
Trying reachpad
166 hours 40 minutes of agent work is shared across up to 10 workspaces, with no card required. The quickstart is six commands and the last one is a link you can send.
Checked against published documentation on 23 August 2026. Something out of date or unfair? The other comparisons, or this page as raw markdown: /compare/github-codespaces.md