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Cloud Workspaces

A workspace is a full development environment that runs in the cloud and opens in your browser: an editor, a terminal, and your tools, with nothing to install locally. Null Autos workspaces come pre-loaded with the platform's tooling so you are productive immediately.

Why cloud workspaces​

Setting up an Android Automotive development environment is notoriously time-consuming: large toolchains, specific SDK versions, and lots of disk. Workspaces give every developer an identical, ready-to-go environment in seconds, and tie directly into the rest of the platform.

What is inside​

  • A browser-based code editor, built on GitLab's remote development.
  • The Null Autos editor extension, so you can manage emulators and snapshots without leaving the editor.
  • Developer tooling out of the box: nullctl, the GitLab CLI (glab), jq, yq, and common shell utilities.
  • Language support enabled for the kinds of files typical in automotive work, including XML, YAML, and Kotlin.
  • Authenticated to the platform automatically, so nullctl and the SDKs act as you without a manual login.

How you get one​

Workspaces are launched through GitLab from a project configured to use the Null Autos workspace environment. Your platform team sets this up as part of onboarding, and from then on developers start a workspace straight from GitLab.

Working in a workspace​

Because the workspace is already authenticated, you can immediately:

nullctl get emulators
nullctl create emulator --snapshot <name>
nullctl adb connect <emulator-id>

You can also use the editor extension to browse and manage devices visually.

Next steps​