What is Che?

Evaluate Che as a cloud development platform that delivers container-based, reproducible workspaces on Kubernetes or OpenShift to accelerate developer onboarding and reduce environment inconsistencies.

This page is for platform administrators and developers evaluating Che as a cloud development platform. To learn more about common roles and example tasks referenced in Che documentation, see Common user roles and tasks.

Eclipse Che is a Kubernetes-native platform that provides cloud development environments (CDEs) to development teams. Instead of configuring local machines, developers get on-demand workspaces: container-based environments with all the tools, dependencies, and IDE access needed to code, build, test, and debug applications.

Core goals

Che addresses three fundamental challenges in enterprise software development:

Accelerate project and developer onboarding: As a zero-install development environment accessible through a browser or desktop IDE, Che enables anyone to join a team and contribute to a project within minutes rather than hours or days of local setup.
Remove inconsistency between developer environments: Every developer works in the same container-based environment defined by a devfile. Code behaves identically across all team members' workspaces, removing "works on my machine" issues.
Provide built-in security and enterprise readiness: Che keeps source code on the cluster rather than on individual workstations, supports role-based access control through Kubernetes RBAC, and integrates with enterprise identity providers through OIDC authentication.

What Che provides

Workspaces: Container-based developer workspaces running as Kubernetes or OpenShift Pods that provide all the tools and dependencies needed for development. Each workspace is isolated, reproducible, and defined by a devfile.
Browser-based and desktop IDEs: Microsoft Visual Studio Code - Open Source runs in the browser by default. JetBrains IntelliJ IDEA connects through JetBrains Gateway for a native desktop experience.
Extensible platform: Customize workspaces through devfiles, Visual Studio Code extensions from Open VSX registries, and AI coding assistants. Platform engineers define standardized environments that developers consume without manual configuration.
Enterprise integration: Kubernetes-native deployment through an Operator, OIDC authentication, Kubernetes RBAC for access control, and integration with Prometheus for monitoring.

Workspace model

Che defines a workspace as the project source code together with all dependencies necessary to edit, build, run, and debug it. The IDE and development runtime are treated as workspace dependencies, embedded and always included. This differentiates Che from traditional development environments where the IDE is bound to a workstation and runtimes are configured locally.

Che workspaces are Kubernetes or OpenShift Pods that replicate application runtimes used in production and provide a development layer on top: intelligent code completion, debugging, and IDE tools. Workspaces are isolated from one another and manage the lifecycle of their own components.

Joining the community

Public chat: Join the public Eclipse Cloud Dev Tools Working Group on Slack and the #forum-che channel to chat with the developers.
GitHub project repositories: Report bugs, request features, and contribute in the main Eclipse Che repository.

Improve documentation in the Eclipse Che docs repository.
Support: Visit StackOverflow to help other users of Eclipse Che: Eclipse Che on StackOverflow.
Community blog: Learn about the latest of Eclipse Che and submit your blog posts to the Eclipse Che blog.
Community meetings: Join us in the Che community meeting, available on-demand.
Roadmap: See the development roadmap on the wiki.

Additional resources