Introduction

Developers love extensions — they customize editors, add new languages, and streamline workflows. But in enterprise environments, relying on the public Open VSX registry can introduce challenges: air-gapped environments, compliance rules, or simply the need for a curated list of approved tools.

That’s where running Open VSX On-Premises comes in. In this post, we’ll explore how Eclipse Che makes it easy to deploy and configure your own extension registry, using nothing more than an Eclipse Che Cloud Development Environment running on the OpenShift cluster.

Step-by-Step: Preparing Eclipse Open VSX with Eclipse Che

All the following steps can be executed inside an Eclipse Che workspace provisioned from the Open VSX repository’s devfile. This Devfile automates most of the work — so instead of manually stitching pieces together, you simply run tasks in sequence.

Prerequisites:

  • You must be running Eclipse Che on an OpenShift cluster.

  • You must be logged in as a cluster administrator.

Step 1: Start the Open VSX Workspace

Create a workspace using the Open VSX repository. This initializes an environment with all required components and tasks.

User Dashboard

Figure 1: User Dashboard

Step 2: Create an OpenShift project for Open VSX

Run the Devfile task:

Terminal → Run Task… → devfile → 2.1. Create Namespace for OpenVSX

This creates a new OpenShift project named openvsx.

Create Open VSX Project

Figure 2: Open VSX namespace creation

Step 3: Build and Publish the Open VSX Server Image

Run the task:

Terminal → Run Task… → devfile → 2.2. Build and Publish Open VSX Image

You’ll be prompted for the Open VSX version (defaults to v0.27.0 if left blank). The image is built and pushed to the OpenShift internal registry.

Build Open VSX Server Image

Figure 3: Open VSX server image build

Step 4: Build and Publish the Open VSX CLI (ovsx) Image

Run the task:

Terminal → Run Task… → devfile → 2.3. Build and Publish OpenVSX CLI Image

This prepares the ovsx CLI image and uploads it to the cluster registry.

Build Open VSX CLI Image

Figure 4: Open VSX CLI image build

Step 5: Deploy Open VSX Components

Run the task:

Terminal → Run Task… → devfile → 2.4. Deploy OpenVSX

This command deploys the Open VSX components to an OpenShift project by processing a template file (openvsx-deployment.yml). It creates all required resources defined in the template, which includes:

  • Deployments (PostgreSQL, Elasticsearch, Open VSX server, Open VSX CLI).

  • Services and Routes for accessing components.

  • Secrets for GitHub OAuth credentials and Open VSX personal access token.

Open VSX Pods

Figure 5: Open VSX pods running in OpenShift console

Step 6: Add a User with Personal Access Token (PAT)

Run the task :

Terminal → Run Task… → devfile → 2.5. Add OpenVSX user with PAT to the DB

The command will ask for the Open VSX username and user PAT and insert them into the PostgreSQL database. You can just click enter to use the default values.

Important
 ❗ The user PAT must match the decoded value of OVSX_PAT_BASE64 specified in the deployment file. If OVSX_PAT_BASE64 has been updated, use the new token’s decoded value as the user PAT.
Adding User and PAT

Figure 6: Terminal output after adding a user with a PAT

Step 7: Configure Eclipse Che to Use Your Internal Registry

Run the task:

Terminal → Run Task… → devfile → 2.6. Configure Che to use the internal OpenVSX registry

This patches the CheCluster CR, updating the pluginRegistry.openVSXURL to point to your internal Open VSX endpoint.

CheCluster CR

Figure 7: CheCluster custom resource after patching

Step 8: Publish Extensions via VSIX File

At the beginning, the Open VSX registry does not provide any extensions. Once the openvsx-server pod is running and in the Ready state, extensions can be published to the registry. The 2.8. Publish a Visual Studio Code Extension from a VSIX file command publishes an extension to the local Open VSX registry directly from a .vsix file. It prompts you to provide the extension’s namespace name and the path to the .vsix file.

Publish Extension from VSIX

Figure 8: Publish GitLens extension from the local vsix file

Step 9: Batch Publish Extensions from a List

For multiple extensions, run:

Terminal → Run Task… → devfile → 2.9. Publish list of Visual Studio Code Extensions

This task reads URLs from deploy/openshift/extensions.txt and publishes them automatically.

Publish List of Extensions

Figure 9: Batch publishing from extensions.txt

Step 10: Verify Integration

Start a new Che workspace and open the Extensions view. Confirm that extensions are served from your internal registry.

Extensions View

Figure 10: Extensions view

Or browse directly to your registry’s route, opening the internal route in the OpenVSX OpenShift project.

Open VSX Extensions Registry

Figure 11: Custom Extensions registry

Optional: Restrict Open VSX Registry to Internal-Only Access

To prevent external exposure:

  • Delete the public route with name internal from openvsx OpenShift project: 

oc delete route internal -n openvsx

  • Patch Che to use the in-cluster service DNS:

oc patch checluster <name> -n <namespace> \
  --type=merge \
  --patch '{"spec":{"components":{"pluginRegistry":{"openVSXURL":"http://openvsx-server.openvsx.svc:8080"}}}}'

Conclusion

Setting up Open VSX on-premises with Eclipse Che may sound complex at first, but the Devfile-driven flow makes it straightforward: You spin up a workspace, run a sequence of tasks, and end up with a fully functional, internal extension registry.

Further Reading