Option to open workspace in new window

[evilhamsterman]

Right now when you use the coder remote extension if you have a window open with a session to a workspace say for project A, and you want to open another window to the same workspace for Project B, if you click the connect button it just brings the Project A window forward.

Something like the official VSCode remote extension would be better, it has an option to open the remote in the current window or launch a new window. Importantly launching a new window works even if it is a new window to the same remote.

[EhabY]

Thanks for the opening this issue! It's possibly a duplicate of #548, I'll have a look at this soon once I'm down with a few important tasks first.

[EhabY]

Something like the official VSCode remote extension would be better, it has an option to open the remote in the current window or launch a new window. Importantly launching a new window works even if it's a new window to the same remote.

Am I misunderstanding the request here because this is an inherent issue with VS Code itself, see the following issue. They suggest multiple ways to get around it, some could work.

[EhabY]

Implementation Design

Problem

When a user already has a VS Code window connected to a Coder workspace (e.g. /home/coder/frontend) and clicks Connect on the same workspace in the sidebar, VS Code silently refocuses the existing window instead of opening a new one.

Root cause (two-part):

1. The extension auto-selects the only recently opened folder without prompting, producing the exact same URI.
2. VS Code refuses to open the same folder URI in two windows and refocuses instead (microsoft/vscode#2686, closed "not planned").

VS Code does allow multiple windows to the same remote when each opens a different folder. It also supports duplicating a window via the built-in Workspaces: Duplicate Workspace in New Window command, which preserves the full window state (tabs, panels, remote connection).

Related: #548, #333 (folder picker)

Proposed solution

Use SecretStorage as a lightweight cross-window communication channel (PING/PONG protocol). The approach is best-effort — if no listener is active, the behavior is identical to today (refocus).

Flow

User clicks "Connect" on workspace X
  │
  ├─ 1. Fire openFolder() immediately (current behavior, no delay)
  │     • If no other window → opens normally ✓
  │     • If another window → VS Code refocuses it (acceptable fallback)
  │
  └─ 2. Fire PING via SecretStorage in parallel
        │
        ├─ No PONG within ~1s → done (no listener / window was closed)
        │
        └─ PONG received { sessionId, folder }
              │
              └─ Show notification: "A window is already connected
                 to this workspace."
                    • [Duplicate Window]      → DUPLICATE cmd via SecretStorage
                                                → other window runs
                                                  duplicateWorkspaceInNewWindow
                    • [Open Without Folder]   → openFolder(undefined) with
                                                  the remote authority

Why this works

• Zero added latency for the common case — openFolder() fires immediately; the PING is parallel overhead.
• No false positives — we only act on a confirmed PONG from a live window. No heartbeat TTL to go stale.
• Best-effort — if the extension's local host isn't active in the connected window (no listener), we silently fall back to today's refocus behavior.
• No workspace identity changes — duplicateWorkspaceInNewWindow preserves folder, settings, panels, tabs.

SecretStorage protocol

Two keys to avoid PING/PONG collisions:

Key	Written by	Listened by
coder.ipc.req	Sidebar (PING, DUPLICATE)	Connected windows
coder.ipc.res	Connected windows (PONG)	Sidebar

Message shapes:

// PING — "is anyone connected to this workspace?"
{ "type": "ping", "id": "<uuid>", "authority": "<remote-authority>" }

// PONG — "yes, I am"
{ "type": "pong", "id": "<uuid>", "sessionId": "<vscode.env.sessionId>", "folder": "/home/coder/frontend" }

// DUPLICATE — "please duplicate your window"
{ "type": "duplicate", "id": "<uuid>", "targetSessionId": "<sessionId>" }

Implementation

PR: #918

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