ide-management

Managing Cloud IDEs

Platform: This skill applies to ACE (Acquia Cloud Enterprise) subscriptions only.

Use when:

• Creating, opening, or sharing a Cloud IDE
• Deleting or listing Cloud IDEs
• Configuring IDE services or checking hibernation status

What is a Cloud IDE?

A Cloud IDE is a complete Drupal development environment that includes:

• Theia IDE — Web-based code editor (VS Code-like interface)
• Apache & PHP — Full Drupal web server
• MySQL Database — Development database
• Drush — Drupal command-line tool
• Composer — PHP dependency manager
• Git — Version control

Hibernation: IDEs automatically enter hibernation after 2 hours of inactivity, consuming minimal resources. They wake automatically when you access them.

List Your IDEs

See all IDEs for a given application

acli ide:list 2>/dev/null | grep -v "is available\|self-update"
acli ide:list:app <applicationUuid> 2>

Output:

List IDEs belonging to you (across all applications)

Shows only IDEs you personally own across all applications.

Create a New IDE

Interactive Wizard

Prompts you step-by-step:

Scripted (non-interactive)

What happens after creation?

1. IDE provisioning (~2-3 minutes)
2. Theia loads with your codebase
3. Databases are cloned from your application
4. Development environment is ready

Open an IDE in Your Browser

Open directly

Prompts which IDE if you have multiple.

With application context

Get just the URL

Shows the IDE URL and details.

Get IDE Information

Output:

Delete an IDE

Delete with confirmation

Prompts for confirmation:

Delete non-interactively

Note: This is permanent and cannot be undone. Make sure to push any uncommitted code to Git!

Share an IDE with Teammates

Get the share URL

Prints the share URL for your IDE:

Regenerate the share token

Invalidates the old token and prints a new share URL.

Access shared IDE

Your teammate clicks the share URL and gets temporary read access. They don't need their own IDE or application access.

Configure & Manage IDE Services

Change PHP version

Example:

Validates the version exists on the system, updates the config, and restarts php-fpm automatically.

Manage IDE Services

Valid service names: php, php-fpm, apache, apache2, mysql, mysqld

Toggle Xdebug

Checks the current state and switches it — enables if disabled, disables if enabled. Alias: xdebug.

Hibernation

IDEs automatically hibernate after 2 hours of inactivity and wake automatically when accessed (1–2 minute startup). Hibernated IDEs consume minimal resources.

To check status or get URLs:

To wake a hibernated IDE, simply open it:

The IDE will wake automatically. If stuck, try restarting services:

Best Practices

1. One IDE per Feature Branch

Create a new IDE for each feature you're working on:

This keeps work isolated and makes it easy to switch between tasks.

2. Delete Idle IDEs

Remove IDEs you're no longer using to keep your account clean:

3. Use IDE Labels Wisely

Choose descriptive labels:

4. Push Code Regularly

Your IDE has Git access. Push to your repository frequently.

5. Monitor Resources

Large IDEs use more resources. Check your Acquia Cloud dashboard if you hit limits.

Troubleshooting

IDE won't start / stuck loading

Delete and recreate the IDE:

"Access Denied" error

You might not have permission to the application. Verify:

IDE is very slow

This is often due to hibernation waking (wait 30–60 seconds) or a large codebase. If it persists, recreate the IDE:

Can't SSH into IDE

Set up SSH keys first:

Related Topics

• SSH Key Management — Set up secure SSH access
• Troubleshooting