Daily Work

Work inside your workspace

What you get inside a running workspace in code-server: the editor and its extensions, the Archibus app and database, logs, email testing, git, and where your files live.

Customer membersCustomer adminsPlatform operators

Last updated June 19, 2026

A running Archibus workspace in code-server: an AXVW view open in the editor, the file tree on the left, and the Archibot panel on the right.

This guide is for whoever opens the workspace and does the work — member, admin, or operator. Anyone with access to a workspace can open it in code-server (VS Code in the browser) and use everything below. Creating and starting workspaces is covered in Create the first workspace and Manage workspaces; this guide picks up once the editor is open.

Open the editor

From My Workspaces in Console, find your running workspace and click Browser. The editor opens in a new tab, already pointed at the application folder (/home/codespace/applications). If you prefer your local tools, the row’s overflow menu also offers VS Code Desktop and JetBrains Gateway — they connect to the same workspace over a tunnel.

The first open after a start can take a few seconds while extensions finish installing in the background.

code-server with an AXVW view open, the file tree of Archibus views on the left, and the Archibot panel docked on the right.

What’s already installed

The editor comes set up for Archibus work, so you rarely install anything yourself:

Archibot — the in-workspace assistant, in its own sidebar panel. See Use the workspace bot.
A full Java toolset — language support, debugger, Maven, and Gradle — for Archibus server code.
SQLTools with SQL Server and Oracle drivers, plus a database client — connect to the workspace database and run queries from the editor.
GitLens for history and blame, Docker, YAML, EditorConfig, Prettier, markdownlint.
Rainbow CSV and an Excel viewer for data files.

You can add your own extensions; they live in your workspace home and survive a stop/start.

The Archibus app

Most Archibus workspaces run Tomcat with the Archibus WAR already deployed under tomcat/webapps/archibus/. Tomcat listens on port 8080.

Open the running app from the Tomcat link in the Coder workspace page.
After you change code or configuration, restart Tomcat. Use the Restart Tomcat action on the workspace, or run ~/tomcat-service.sh restart in a terminal. ~/tomcat-service.sh status tells you whether it’s up.
Server output goes to ~/logs/catalina.out.

The Archibus WebCentral home dashboard running in the workspace, with building cards, occupancy and work-completion gauges, and the left navigator.

The database

Depending on how the workspace was built, it runs either SQL Server (port 1433) or Oracle (port 1521). The connection is wired into the Archibus config for you — you don’t set up credentials by hand. The SQLTools and database-client extensions are pre-installed, and the bot can run read-only queries for you (it won’t change data). Project and connection settings live in WEB-INF/config/afm-projects.xml under the application folder.

The SQLTools panel in code-server with a pre-configured connection to the workspace database expanded to its schema.

Or ask the bot to look something up — it runs the query with its read-only tool and shows the rows right in the terminal.

The workspace bot running a read-only SQL query and returning a table of room rows in the terminal.

Where things live

A few paths worth knowing:

/home/codespace/applications — the Archibus application root the editor opens in.
~/logs — startup.log (what ran when the workspace came up), catalina.out (Tomcat), and mail-debug.log (test email).
~/flyway — database migration config, when Flyway is used.

Your home directory is persistent storage. It survives a stop and start, but a delete removes the workspace and its disk. For anything you want to keep across workspaces — notes, evidence, drafts — commit it to git or save it to Shared Drive.

Email goes to a test inbox

So workspace email never reaches a real recipient, outgoing mail is captured by a local debug server on 127.0.0.1:1025. Read what the app “sent” in ~/logs/mail-debug.log. If you specifically need real delivery, set SMTP_DEBUG_DISABLE=1 before starting Tomcat.

Git is already authenticated

Repository access (Bitbucket or GitLab) is set up through managed credentials, so git pull, commit, and push work without you pasting a token. Commit and push as you normally would. Don’t store tokens, keys, or credential files in the repo or in Shared Drive.

Use the workspace bot — start Archibot in the editor and put it to work.
Manage workspaces — start, stop, update, and schedule from Console.
Workspace Archibot and Shared Drive — keep notes and artifacts that outlive a workspace.
Troubleshooting — first steps when the app or editor looks wrong.

Done When

You have a running workspace and opened it in the browser.
The editor loads at the applications folder.
Tomcat answers on the workspace's app URL.
The Archibot extension is visible in the sidebar.