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CodeRunner

CodeRunner is a self-hosted, browser-based IDE for teaching FRC robot programming. Students can open a web page, log in, write Java in a real VS Code editor, simulate their robot, inspect telemetry in AdvantageScope, and edit PathPlanner files. There is nothing to install on a student's machine and no per-device setup to maintain. Everything runs on a machine you control and is delivered through the browser.

How to use CodeRunner​

  1. Click Switch project and load a lesson or import a team project.
  2. Follow the lesson instructions or open the files you want to edit.
  3. Click Start in the Driver Station at the bottom of the page.
  4. When robot code and communications are ready, choose a mode and click Enable.
  5. Use the AdvantageScope and PathPlanner tabs to inspect telemetry or edit paths.

Use CodeRunner's Start button for robot projects, not the WPILib extension's simulation command. Console lessons are the exception: run those with the editor's ▷ button.

Read the short student guide →

What students get​

  • A real VS Code editor in the browser. Each student works in VSCodium with the Java and WPILib extensions already installed, so they get auto-import, code completion, Ctrl-click into library classes, and inline diagnostics, the same tooling a mentor would use locally.
  • An isolated workspace per student. Every student gets their own Docker container, so one person's broken build or runaway process never affects anyone else.
  • One-click simulation with a built-in Driver Station. Clicking Start builds the project and starts a WPILib simulation. The Driver Station UI lets students enable the robot, switch modes, and drive with a gamepad.
  • Integrated robot tools. Robot data streams into AdvantageScope, while PathPlanner edits files in the current project. Both are available beside the editor without a separate install.

Lessons and team projects​

CodeRunner ships with lesson modules that take beginners from plain Java all the way up to a complete WPILib robot, one step at a time. Students choose a lesson from the editor and their workspace fills in with the starting code. When a team is ready to work on its own robot, they can instead import a public GitHub robot project and keep working against their real codebase.

Self-hosted and modest to run​

CodeRunner is designed to run on hardware you already have: a spare classroom machine during the season, or a small cloud VM when you want students to reach it from home. You decide who can log in, and student data lives on your own disk.

Video walkthrough​

A recorded overview of CodeRunner, with some basic demos and high-level info on how it works.

Next steps​