pad.ws - whiteboard as an IDE 🎨

pad.ws is a whiteboard app that acts as a dev environment in your browser

✨ Features

• 🎨 Interactive Whiteboard - Draw, sketch and visualize your ideas with Excalidraw
• 💻 Fully fetched IDE - Access terminals and VS Code directly within the whiteboard
• ☁️ Browser friendly - Access your dev env from any device
• 🔄 Seamless Workflow - Switch between visual ideation and coding
• 🛠️ Use your own tools - Access your VM from your desktop client (VS Code & Cursor supported)

This uses Excalidraw for the whiteboard interface while Coder powers the cloud development environments.

Try it online 🌐

Visit pad.ws for an official managed instance. During this beta, we offer free ubuntu dev environments without any setup

Self-Hosting 🛠️

⚠️ IMPORTANT NOTICE: This repository is in early development stage. The setup provided in docker-compose.yml is for development and testing purposes only. This simplified example lets you host pad on localhost but is not safe for real-life use without further configurations ⚠️

✅ Prerequisites

• Linux Host (This was tested on Ubuntu only)
• Docker & Docker Compose: Ensure you have both installed. Install Docker / Install Docker Compose

1️⃣ .env

• Copy and review the default values

  cp .env.template .env

2️⃣ PostgreSQL 🐘

Ensure persistence for the whole deployment (canvases and configs)

• Run the PostgreSQL container using the provided configuration (e.g., in your docker-compose.yml)

  docker compose up -d postgres 

3️⃣ Keycloak 🔑

OIDC provider for access and user management (within coder and pad app)

• Run the Keycloak container

  docker compose up -d keycloak 

• Access the Keycloak admin console http://localhost:8080
• Create a Realm: Name it appropriately (e.g., pad-ws)
• Create a Client:
  • Give it a Client ID (e.g., pad-ws-client)
  • Enable Client Authentication
  • Add * to the valid redirect urls
  • You can leave other settings as default for now
• Get Credentials:
  • Navigate to Clients -> [Your Client ID] -> Credentials tab
  • Note the Client secret.
  • Update your environment variables file (.env) with:

    OIDC_REALM=your_oidc_realm
    OIDC_CLIENT_ID=your_client_id 
    OIDC_CLIENT_SECRET=your_client_secret 

• Create a User:
  • Navigate to Users -> Create user
  • Fill in the details
  • Important: Tick Email verified
  • Go to the Credentials tab for the new user and set a password

4️⃣ Coder 🧑‍💻

• Find Docker Group ID: You'll need this to grant necessary permissions

  getent group docker | cut -d: -f3 

• Update your .env file with the DOCKER_GROUP_ID:

  DOCKER_GROUP_ID=your_docker_group_id 

• Run the Coder container.

  docker compose up -d coder

• Access Coder UI: Open localhost:7080 in your browser
• First Login: Create an administrator user (e.g., admin)
• Create a Template:
  • Use the "Start from template" option.
  • Choose a base image (e.g., docker-containers or a simple Ubuntu). Configure it as needed
• Generate API Key:
  • Click your profile picture (top right) -> Account -> API Keys
  • Generate a new token
  • Update your .env

    CODER_API_KEY=your_coder_api_key 

• Get Template ID:
  • Visit http://localhost:7080/api/v2/templates in your browser (or use curl)
  • Find the id of the template you created
  • Update your .env

    CODER_TEMPLATE_ID=your_coder_template_id # Example: 85fb21ba-085b-47a6-9f4d-94ea979aaba9

• Get Default Organization ID:
  • Visit http://localhost:7080/api/v2/organizations in your browser (or use curl)
  • Find the id of your organization (usually the default one)
  • Update your .env:

    CODER_DEFAULT_ORGANIZATION=your_organization_id # Example: 70f6af06-ef3a-4b4c-a663-c03c9ee423bb

5️⃣ Pad App 📝

The fastAPI app that both serves the build frontend and the backend API to interface with Coder

• Run the Application:

  • Ensure all environment variables in your .env file are correctly set

  • Run the pad application container

    docker compose up -d pad 

🎉 Congratulations! You should now be able to access and login to your self-hosted pad at localhost:8000

🚧 Did you have any issue while following this guide? Please let us know so we can improve the onboarding flow