This guide explains how to connect directly to your Pod through VSCode or Cursor using the Remote-SSH extension, allowing you to work within your Pod’s volume directories as if the files were stored on your local machine.

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Requirements

Before you begin, you’ll need:
  • A local development environment with VSCode or Cursor installed.
  • Familiarity with basic command-line operations and SSH.

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Step 1: Install the Remote-SSH extension

To connect to a Pod, you’ll need to install the Remote-SSH extension for your IDE:
  1. Open VSCode or Cursor and navigate to the Extensions view (Ctrl+Shift+X or Cmd+Shift+X).
  2. Search for and install the Remote-SSH extension:
    • VSCode: Remote - SSH by ms-vscode-remote.
    • Cursor: Remote-SSH by Anysphere.

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Step 2: Generate an SSH key

Before you can connect to a Pod, you’ll need an SSH key that is paired with your RunPod account. If you don’t have one, follow these steps:
  1. Generate an SSH key using this command on your local terminal: 
    ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -f ~/.ssh/id_ed25519 -C "YOUR_EMAIL@DOMAIN.COM"
  2. To retrieve your public SSH key, run this command: 
    cat ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub
    This will output something similar to this: 
    ssh-ed25519 AAAAC4NzaC1lZDI1JTE5AAAAIGP+L8hnjIcBqUb8NRrDiC32FuJBvRA0m8jLShzgq6BQ YOUR_EMAIL@DOMAIN.COM
  3. Copy and paste the output into the SSH Public Keys field in your RunPod user account settings.
To enable SSH access, your public key must be present in the ~/.ssh/authorized_keys file on your Pod. If you upload your public key to the settings page before your Pod starts, the system will automatically inject it into that file at startup.If your Pod is already running when you upload the key, the system will not perform this injection. To enable SSH access, you’ll need to either terminate/redeploy the Pod, or open a web terminal on the running Pod and run the following commands:
export PUBLIC_KEY="<the value you cat out locally>"
echo "$PUBLIC_KEY" >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

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Step 3: Deploy a Pod

Next, deploy the Pod you want to connect to. For detailed deployment instructions, see Manage Pods -> Create a Pod. To connect with VSCode/Cursor, your Pod template must support SSH over exposed TCP. To determine whether your Pod template supports this, during deployment, after selecting a template, look for a checkbox under Instance Pricing labeled SSH Terminal Access and make sure it’s checked.
All official Runpod Pytorch templates support SSH over exposed TCP.

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Step 4: Configure SSH for your IDE

Next, you’ll configure SSH access to your Pod using the Remote-SSH extension. The instructions are different for VSCode and Cursor:
  1. From the Pods page, select the Pod you deployed.
  2. Select Connect, then select the SSH tab.
  3. Copy the second command, under SSH over exposed TCP. It will look similar to this: 
    ssh root@123.456.789.80 -p 12345 -i ~/.ssh/id_ed25519
    If you only see one command under SSH, then SSH over exposed TCP is not supported by your selected Pod template. This means you won’t be able to connect to your Pod directly through VSCode/Cursor, but you can still connect using basic SSH via the terminal.
  4. In VSCode, open the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P or Cmd+Shift+P) and choose Remote-SSH: Connect to Host, then select Add New SSH Host.
  5. Enter the copied SSH command from step 3 (ssh root@***.***.***.** -p ***** -i ~/.ssh/id_ed25519) and press Enter. This will add a new entry to your SSH config file.

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Step 5: Connect to your Pod

Now you can connect to your Pod with the Remote-SSH extension.
  1. Open the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P or Cmd+Shift+P).
  2. Select Remote-SSH: Connect to Host.
  3. Choose your Pod from the list (either by IP or custom name if you configured one).
  4. VSCode/Cursor will open a new window and connect to your Pod.
  5. When prompted, select the platform (Linux).
  6. Once connected, click Open Folder and navigate to your workspace directory (typically /workspace).
You should now be connected to your Pod instance, where you can edit files in your volume directories as if they were local.
If you stop and then resume your Pod, the port numbers may change. If so, you’ll need to go back to the previous step and update your SSH config file using the new port numbers before reconnecting.

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Working with your Pod

Once connected through Remote-SSH, you can:
  • Edit files with full IntelliSense and language support.
  • Run and debug applications with access to GPU resources.
  • Use integrated terminal for command execution.
  • Install extensions that run on the remote host.
  • Forward ports to access services locally.
  • Commit and push code using integrated Git support.
Here are some important directories to be aware of:
  • /workspace: Default persistent storage directory.
  • /tmp: Temporary files (cleared when Pod stops).
  • /root: Home directory for the root user.

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Troubleshooting

If you can’t connect to your Pod:
  1. Verify your Pod is running and fully initialized.
  2. Check that your SSH key is properly configured in RunPod settings.
  3. Ensure the Pod has SSH enabled in its template.
If the VSCode/Cursor server fails to install:
  1. Check that your Pod has sufficient disk space.
  2. Ensure your Pod has internet connectivity.
  3. Try manually removing the .vscode-server or .cursor-server directory and reconnecting: 
    rm -rf ~/.vscode-server