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Testing SSH Remote Support

This guide explains how to set up a Podman container with SSH to test the AI Primitives Hub extension in VS Code remote SSH scenarios.

Prerequisites​

  • Podman installed
  • VS Code with Remote-SSH extension installed
  • SSH client on host machine

Quick Start​

1. Create SSH Test Container​

Create a Dockerfile for the SSH-enabled container:

cat > Dockerfile.ssh-test << 'EOF'
FROM ubuntu:22.04

# Install SSH server and dependencies
RUN apt-get update && \
    apt-get install -y openssh-server sudo curl git && \
    apt-get clean && \
    rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*

# Create SSH directory
RUN mkdir /var/run/sshd

# Create test user
RUN useradd -rm -d /home/testuser -s /bin/bash -g users -G sudo -u 1001 testuser && \
    echo 'testuser:testpass' | chpasswd

# Allow password authentication
RUN sed -i 's/#PasswordAuthentication yes/PasswordAuthentication yes/' /etc/ssh/sshd_config && \
    sed -i 's/PasswordAuthentication no/PasswordAuthentication yes/' /etc/ssh/sshd_config

# Allow root login (optional, for debugging)
RUN sed -i 's/#PermitRootLogin prohibit-password/PermitRootLogin yes/' /etc/ssh/sshd_config

# Expose SSH port
EXPOSE 22

# Start SSH service
CMD ["/usr/sbin/sshd", "-D"]
EOF

2. Build the Container Image​

podman build -f Dockerfile.ssh-test -t vscode-ssh-test .

3. Run the Container​

podman run -d \
  --name vscode-ssh-test \
  -p 2222:22 \
  vscode-ssh-test

4. Verify SSH Access​

ssh -p 2222 testuser@localhost
# Password: testpass

5. Configure VS Code Remote-SSH​

Edit ~/.ssh/config:

cat >> ~/.ssh/config << 'EOF'

Host vscode-ssh-test
    HostName localhost
    Port 2222
    User testuser
    StrictHostKeyChecking no
    UserKnownHostsFile /dev/null
EOF

6. Connect from VS Code​

  1. Install "Remote - SSH" extension in VS Code
  2. Press F1 and select "Remote-SSH: Connect to Host..."
  3. Select "vscode-ssh-test"
  4. Enter password: testpass

7. Install Extension in Remote​

Once connected:

# Build VSIX first (on host)
npm run package:vsix

# Copy to container
podman cp prompt-registry-0.0.2.vsix vscode-ssh-test:/home/testuser/

# In VS Code remote terminal
code --install-extension ~/prompt-registry-0.0.2.vsix

8. Test the Extension​

  1. Check vscode.env.remoteName - should be 'ssh-remote'
  2. Install a prompt collection
  3. Check Output → "AI Primitives Hub" for logs
  4. Verify prompts sync to remote filesystem

Cleanup​

podman stop vscode-ssh-test
podman rm vscode-ssh-test
podman rmi vscode-ssh-test

Testing Checklist​

  • Container starts and SSH is accessible
  • VS Code connects to SSH remote
  • Extension installs in remote
  • Extension activates without errors
  • Can install prompt collections
  • Prompts sync to remote filesystem
  • No errors in Output panel