Sneak Peek: Adafruit Raspberry Pi WebIDE

We love the Raspberry Pi.  This tiny computer has so much potential for makers, and it is offered at an extremely reasonable price.  The one thing we didn’t like about the Pi is how inaccesible it is to those who are new to Linux.  So, the tiny team that brought you the Adafruit Learning System set out to develop our own way to open up the Raspberry Pi for everyone.  What started out as a barebones, and basic way to get code running on your Pi, turned into something much more awesome.  The Raspberry Pi WebIDE is extremely easy to use, but also very feature-rich and powerful.  Here is a sneak peek at just a few of its many features.

As the name suggests, the Raspberry Pi WebIDE is entirely web based.  No need to install any software on your computer.  Just open any modern browser, and connect to your Pi.  Oh, and all of your code is stored in the cloud.

We have also included a built-in terminal so you can listen to, and talk directly with your Raspberry Pi.

We have so many cool things planned for the WebIDE, and expect to have plenty of updates (especially at the beginning).  The last thing you want is to have to manually reinstall the WebIDE  on your Pi with each update.  So, we have a built-in automatic updater.  One click and you will be updated to the latest version available.

Like I said, this is just a sneak peek, and covers only  a few of it’s many features.  We are still in the Alpha development phase but are moving fast.  As soon as we think it is stable enough for public testing, we will let you know.

Stay tuned to the Adafruit blog for more updates.


Adafruit publishes a wide range of writing and video content, including interviews and reporting on the maker market and the wider technology world. Our standards page is intended as a guide to best practices that Adafruit uses, as well as an outline of the ethical standards Adafruit aspires to. While Adafruit is not an independent journalistic institution, Adafruit strives to be a fair, informative, and positive voice within the community – check it out here: adafruit.com/editorialstandards

Join Adafruit on Mastodon

Adafruit is on Mastodon, join in! adafruit.com/mastodon

Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.

Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat – we’ll post the link there.

Join us every Wednesday night at 8pm ET for Ask an Engineer!

Join over 36,000+ makers on Adafruit’s Discord channels and be part of the community! http://adafru.it/discord

CircuitPython – The easiest way to program microcontrollers – CircuitPython.org


Maker Business — “Packaging” chips in the US

Wearables — Enclosures help fight body humidity in costumes

Electronics — Transformers: More than meets the eye!

Python for Microcontrollers — Python on Microcontrollers Newsletter: Silicon Labs introduces CircuitPython support, and more! #CircuitPython #Python #micropython @ThePSF @Raspberry_Pi

Adafruit IoT Monthly — Guardian Robot, Weather-wise Umbrella Stand, and more!

Microsoft MakeCode — MakeCode Thank You!

EYE on NPI — Maxim’s Himalaya uSLIC Step-Down Power Module #EyeOnNPI @maximintegrated @digikey

New Products – Adafruit Industries – Makers, hackers, artists, designers and engineers! — #NewProds 7/19/23 Feat. Adafruit Matrix Portal S3 CircuitPython Powered Internet Display!

Get the only spam-free daily newsletter about wearables, running a "maker business", electronic tips and more! Subscribe at AdafruitDaily.com !



16 Comments

  1. That was supposed to say,

    drool…

    but maybe it didn’t like that I put it in angle brackets.

  2. cool!

  3. I’d be more than happy to volunteer to beta or even alpha test for you. I’ve got several things set up on the GPIO pins, and have experience with Linux and web serving. Let me know if I can help out.

  4. I’m really excited about this – once again Adafruit is proving how committed and passionate about the Pi they really are.

    Fantastic idea. Let me know if you need any beta testers. I’d love to as well. And I know a few other people in the UK who’d be really interested too!

  5. This just adds to the great news today of the foundation sanctioning speed improvements in the Pi.

    The Arduino IDE was a key to getting Makers to use the Arduino quickly and easily – it appears that your IDE would provide a similar service – great job!

  6. Wow, this is pretty nifty! If it’s open source eventually too, it would be fun to see what can be built on top of it. :]

    “all of your code is stored in the cloud” — meaning on your servers, or on the raspberry pi?

  7. I am a retired RF engineer located in Texas.
    I’m extremely excited about your Rasberry Pi IDE.
    If there is anything I can do you in the RF arena, I would be happy to help you out.

  8. This looks pretty cool. Looks like VI running inside a browser. However, you lost my interest with "you code it stored in the cloud." Kinda is counter to a having a embedded platform right there next to you… Hoping there is an "offline" version, so to speak, unless it’s just a really small on system RaspberryCloud 😀

  9. @Jay Walsh Don’t go jumping to conclusions about what we mean when we say “your code stored in the cloud.” 🙂

    We will have plenty to share soon.

  10. If "cloud" means "sync with personal SVN server" everything is OK 🙂

  11. Is this in a git repo for testing and additions? I’d like to take it for a spin and contribute what I can.

  12. @Dave We are very close to being ready to open this up to beta testers. Keep checking the blog or our @adafruit Twitter feed. Should be within the next couple weeks.

  13. @Tyler – Thanks, that’s great news and I can’t wait.

    This is going to be brilliant for teaching python, and I’m excited about extending it. Just having a friendly, useful UI for a headless device puts the utility for such an inexpensive computer through the roof.

  14. Cant wait!

    Oh, and you have *THE* coolest captcha system in the world 🙂

  15. Will it be possible to run it completely on the Pi, without another computer, i.e. does the web interface work on the more “lightweight” browsers that work well on the Pi, or does it require IE/Firefox/Chrome?

  16. @jim, runs on pi 🙂

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.