Code-Server + Traefik + Kubernetes Ingress

July 4, 2026

This walkthrough was written against older component versions (k3s 1.23, Traefik 2.9, code-server 4.8). The Sablier steps are current, but you may need to adjust the k3s / Traefik / code-server versions and their configuration for your environment.

1. Prerequisites

docker command
kubectl command
helm command

2. Create the Kubernetes cluster using k3s

Copy the following content to a file called docker-compose.yml and run docker compose up -d

services:
  server:
    image: "rancher/k3s:v1.23.12-k3s1"
    command: server --disable=traefik
    tmpfs:
      - /run
      - /var/run
    ulimits:
      nproc: 65535
      nofile:
        soft: 65535
        hard: 65535
    privileged: true
    restart: always
    environment:
      - K3S_KUBECONFIG_OUTPUT=/output/kubeconfig.yaml
      - K3S_KUBECONFIG_MODE=666
    volumes:
      # This is just so that we get the kubeconfig file out
      - .:/output
    ports:
      - 6443:6443  # Kubernetes API Server
      - 8080:80  # Ingress controller port 80

Wait for the cluster to be ready with command

export KUBECONFIG=$(pwd)/kubeconfig.yaml
until kubectl get nodes | grep " Ready "; do sleep 1; done

3. Deploy Traefik using Helm

Add the traefik Helm repository

helm repo add traefik https://helm.traefik.io/traefik
helm repo update

Create the values.yaml file

image:
  tag: "2.9.1"

experimental:
  plugins:
    enabled: true

additionalArguments:
  - "--experimental.plugins.sablier.moduleName=github.com/sablierapp/sablier-traefik-plugin"
  # Replace with the latest release from https://github.com/sablierapp/sablier-traefik-plugin/releases
  - "--experimental.plugins.sablier.version=v1.0.0"

providers:
  kubernetesIngress:
    enabled: true
    allowEmptyServices: true

Install the traefik chart with our values.yaml file

helm install traefik traefik/traefik -f values.yaml --namespace kube-system

4. Deploy Sablier

Create Sablier Service Account file sablier-sa.yaml and then kubectl apply -f sablier-sa.yaml

apiVersion: v1
kind: ServiceAccount
metadata:
  name: sablier
  namespace: kube-system

Create Sablier Cluster Role file sablier-cr.yaml and then kubectl apply -f sablier-cr.yaml

apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
kind: ClusterRole
metadata:
  name: sablier
  namespace: kube-system
rules:
  - apiGroups:
      - apps
      - ""
    resources:
      - deployments
      - deployments/scale
      - statefulsets
      - statefulsets/scale
    verbs:
      - patch   # Scale up and down
      - get     # Retrieve info about specific deployment or statefulset
      - update  # Scale up and down
      - list    # Events
      - watch   # Events

Create Sablier Cluster Role Binding sablier-crb.yaml and then kubectl apply -f sablier-crb.yaml

apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
kind: ClusterRoleBinding
metadata:
  name: sablier
  namespace: kube-system
roleRef:
  apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io
  kind: ClusterRole
  name: sablier
subjects:
  - kind: ServiceAccount
    name: sablier
    namespace: kube-system

Create Sablier Deployment sablier-deployment.yaml and then kubectl apply -f sablier-deployment.yaml

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: sablier-deployment
  namespace: kube-system
  labels:
    app: sablier
spec:
  replicas: 1
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: sablier
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: sablier
    spec:
      serviceAccountName: sablier
      containers:
      - name: sablier
        image: sablierapp/sablier:next
        args: 
        - "start"
        - "--provider.name=kubernetes"
        ports:
        - containerPort: 10000

Create Sablier Service sablier-service.yaml and then kubectl apply -f sablier-service.yaml

apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: sablier
  namespace: kube-system
spec:
  selector:
    app: sablier
  ports:
    - protocol: TCP
      port: 10000
      targetPort: 10000

Check with the command kubectl -n kube-system get deployments, you should have the following:

NAME                     READY   UP-TO-DATE   AVAILABLE   AGE
local-path-provisioner   1/1     1            1           8m25s
coredns                  1/1     1            1           8m25s
metrics-server           1/1     1            1           8m24s
traefik                  1/1     1            1           3m25s
sablier-deployment       1/1     1            1           90s

Or getting the logs kubectl -n kube-system logs deployments/sablier-deployment

time=2026-01-01T12:00:00Z level=INFO msg="using provider \"kubernetes\""
time=2026-01-01T12:00:00Z level=INFO msg="initialized storage to /etc/sablier/state.json"
time=2026-01-01T12:00:00Z level=INFO msg="server listening on :10000"

The Sablier API is now available at http://sablier:10000 inside your cluster.

5. Deploy Code-Server

Create Code-Server Deployment code-server-deployment.yaml and then kubectl apply -f code-server-deployment.yaml

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: code-server-deployment
  namespace: default
  labels:
    app: code-server
spec:
  replicas: 1
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: code-server
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: code-server
    spec:
      containers:
      - name: code-server
        image: codercom/code-server:4.8.3
        ports:
        - containerPort: 8080

Create Code-Server Service code-server-service.yaml and then kubectl apply -f code-server-service.yaml

apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: code-server-service
  namespace: default
spec:
  selector:
    app: code-server
  ports:
    - protocol: TCP
      port: 8080
      targetPort: 8080

Check with the command kubectl get deployments, you should have the following:

NAME                     READY   UP-TO-DATE   AVAILABLE   AGE
code-server-deployment   1/1     1            1           2m18s

The Code-Server instance is now available inside your cluster.

6. Routing Code-Server through Traefik with the Sablier plugin middleware

Create Code-Server Ingress code-server-ingress.yaml and then kubectl apply -f code-server-ingress.yaml

apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
kind: Ingress
metadata:
  name: code-server-ingress
  namespace: default
spec:
  ingressClassName: traefik
  rules:
  - host: localhost
    http:
      paths:
      - path: /
        pathType: Prefix
        backend:
          service:
            name: code-server-service
            port:
              number: 8080

At this point, the Code-Server is reachable at http://localhost:8080.
Scale down the Deployment with kubectl scale deployment code-server-deployment --replicas=0
Now, because we configured --providers.kubernetesIngress.allowEmptyServices=true, if we curl again it should show Service Unavailable.
```
curl http://localhost:8080
Service Unavailable
```
This is the key to make it work. Traefik would have evicted the service from its pool showing a 404 otherwise. Now you only need to plug in the middleware.

Create the Traefik Middleware code-server-sablier-middleware.yaml and then kubectl apply -f code-server-sablier-middleware.yaml

apiVersion: traefik.io/v1alpha1
kind: Middleware
metadata:
  name: code-server-sablier
  namespace: default
spec:
  plugin:
    sablier:
      names: deployment_default_code-server-deployment_1
      sablierUrl: 'http://sablier:10000'
      sessionDuration: 30m
      dynamic:
        displayName: 'Code Server Demo'
        showDetails: true
        theme: hacker-terminal
        refreshFrequency: 5s

Create a patch for Code Server Deployment code-server-ingress-patch.yaml and then kubectl patch ingress code-server-ingress --patch-file code-server-ingress-patch.yaml
```
metadata:
  annotations:
    traefik.ingress.kubernetes.io/router.middlewares: default-code-server-sablier@kubernetescrd
```
Now you can browse http://localhost:8080 and you will see the loading screen while Sablier scales your deployment up, and a few seconds later Code-Server is served.

7. Clean up

docker compose down