Clarification needed: Is my Codespaces desktop experiment within Terms of Use?

[noland9280]

🏷️ Discussion Type

Question

Body

Does this personal experiment project violate Codespaces Terms of Use?

Background

I'm running a personal experiment project on GitHub Codespaces and seeking
community clarification on whether it complies with the Terms of Use.

Project Details

Repository: noland9280/virtual-pc-experiment

What it does: Creates a browser-based Ubuntu virtual desktop environment on Codespaces

• KDE Plasma (full desktop environment)
• KasmVNC (browser-based screen sharing)
• Wine (Windows app compatibility layer)
• Testing if Roblox Studio and other Windows apps work via Wine

Usage conditions:

• Non-commercial only (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license)
• Free tier only (120 core-hours/month personal quota)
• Personal learning and testing purpose
• No service provided to third parties
• No commercial use

The Question

According to GitHub Terms for Additional Products and Features, Codespaces
prohibits:

"Any other activity unrelated to the development or testing of the
software project associated with the repository where Codespaces was started"

My project is a personal learning/research experiment that tests
whether a full desktop environment (KDE Plasma) can run reliably on Codespaces
via the Selkies project infrastructure.

Does this fall under prohibited "unrelated activity" when:

1. It's non-profit and within free tier
2. It's clearly a technical experiment/learning project
3. It's not offered as a service to others

Current Status

• Already submitted inquiry to GitHub Support (received only redirect to community resources)
• README already includes gray-zone disclaimer and self-responsibility notice
• Documentation and licensing are complete and transparent
• Not attempting to hide or misuse the service

What I'm Looking For

• Is this type of personal experiment acceptable?
• Does it violate the Terms of Use?
• Is it in a gray zone that I should be cautious about?

Any insights from the community would be appreciated.
Thank you!
The README is in Japanese. Please translate it into English to read it.

[kanishta2001]

Hello @noland9280 ..

I think this is a gray area, but the important part is how the Codespace is being used, not whether it is free, personal, or non-commercial.

If you are actively developing and testing the files in this repository—for example, the setup scripts, KDE/VNC configuration, documentation, and Wine compatibility—then it looks related to the project.

However, if the Codespace is mainly being used as a remote personal Ubuntu PC, or just to run Roblox Studio and other apps after the setup is finished, that may be outside the intended use of Codespaces.

So my suggestion would be:

• Use Codespaces only while developing or testing this repository.
• Keep your tests documented and commit your changes/results.
• Do not leave it running as a personal remote desktop or hosted service.
• Use your own PC, local VM, or another cloud provider for general desktop/app usage.

Being non-commercial and staying within the free quota is good, but it does not by itself make the use compliant. The README language also does not change the Terms, although adding a short English summary would make the project easier for others to review.