Getting started (local development)

This tutorial walks through running the coder-k8s controller locally against a Kubernetes cluster.

Prerequisites

• Go 1.25+ (go.mod currently declares Go 1.25.7)
• A Kubernetes cluster (OrbStack is recommended for local development; any cluster works)
• kubectl configured to point at your cluster context

If you use the Nix devshell, run:

nix develop

1. Generate and install CRDs

Generate the CRD and RBAC manifests:

make manifests

Install the CRDs into your cluster:

kubectl apply -f config/crd/bases/

2. Run the controller locally

Run the controller in controller mode (uses your kubeconfig context):

GOFLAGS=-mod=vendor go run . --app=controller

3. Create a sample CoderControlPlane

In another terminal:

kubectl apply -f config/samples/coder_v1alpha1_codercontrolplane.yaml

4. Verify

kubectl get codercontrolplanes -A

Next steps

• Learn how to deploy the controller in-cluster: How-to guides → Deploy controller.
• Learn how the project is structured: Explanation → Architecture.