CloudWorkStation Development Roadmap¶

Current Version: v0.5.5
Last Updated: October 20, 2025
Status: Active Development

This roadmap outlines planned features and enhancements for CloudWorkStation. All items are tracked in GitHub Issues and the CloudWorkStation Development Project.

🎯 Current Focus: Phase 5.0 - UX Redesign¶

Priority: CRITICAL - HIGHEST PRIORITY Target: v0.5.6 (Q4 2025)

CloudWorkStation is shifting focus from feature development to user experience optimization. The current 15-minute learning curve for first workspace needs to be reduced to 30 seconds.

Phase 5.0.1: Quick Wins (2 weeks - Due: November 15, 2025)¶

Milestone: Phase 5.0.1: Quick Wins

High-impact, low-effort improvements: - #13 - Home Page with Quick Start wizard - #14 - Merge Terminal/WebView into Workspaces - #15 - Rename "Instances" → "Workspaces" - #16 - Collapse Advanced Features under Settings - #17 - Add cws init onboarding wizard

Deferred: - #65 - Project rename (deferred - final name TBD)

Phase 5.0.2: Information Architecture (4 weeks - Due: December 15, 2025)¶

Milestone: Phase 5.0.2: Information Architecture

Navigation and structural improvements: - #18 - Unified Storage UI (EFS + EBS) - #19 - Integrate Budgets into Projects - Navigation reorganization (14 → 6 items) - Role-based visibility (hide admin features from non-admins) - Context-aware recommendations

Phase 5.0.3: CLI Consistency (2 weeks - Due: December 31, 2025)¶

Milestone: Phase 5.0.3: CLI Consistency

Command structure improvements: - #20 - Consistent CLI Command Structure - Unified storage commands (cws storage replacing volume + storage) - Predictable command patterns - Enhanced tab completion

Why This Matters: New researchers face cognitive overload before completing basic tasks. UX redesign will dramatically improve first-time user experience.

Track Progress: GitHub Milestone: Phase 5.0 UX Redesign

📅 Release Schedule¶

v0.5.6 (Q1 2026): UX Redesign + Storage & Template Enhancements¶

Release Date: January 15, 2026 Focus: User experience transformation + Advanced provisioning capabilities

UX Redesign Components¶

Milestones: 5.0.1, 5.0.2, 5.0.3 - Complete Phase 5.0.1, 5.0.2, 5.0.3 (detailed above) - Home page, navigation restructure, CLI consistency - Impact: Reduce onboarding from 15min to 30sec

Storage & Template Enhancements¶

Milestone: Phase 5.6: Template Provisioning - #30 - SSM File Operations for Large File Transfer - #64 - S3-backed file transfer with progress reporting - #31 - Template asset management for binaries and configuration files - Impact: Enable multi-GB template provisioning with progress tracking

v0.6.0 (Q2 2026): Security, Authentication & User Experience¶

Major Release - Enterprise Ready

1. 🔄 Auto-Update Feature (#61)¶

Status: Planned
Why: Users don't know when new versions are available, miss bug fixes and features

Features: - GitHub Releases API integration for version detection - cws version --check-update command with release notes - Startup notifications in CLI/TUI/GUI - Platform-specific update helpers (Homebrew, apt, manual install)

Example:

$ cws version --check-update
CloudWorkStation CLI v0.5.5
⚠️  New version available: v0.6.0 (released 2 days ago)

What's New:
- AWS Quota Management with intelligent AZ failover
- Auto-update feature with background checks
- GUI system tray support

To update:
  macOS:   brew upgrade cloudworkstation
  Linux:   curl -L https://get.cloudworkstation.io | bash

2. 🖥️ GUI System Tray and Auto-Start (#62)¶

Status: Planned
Why: GUI lacks convenient system tray access and auto-start on login

Features: - Native system tray integration (macOS menu bar, Windows tray, Linux tray) - Context menu with Quick Launch, My Workspaces, Cost Summary - Auto-start on login (Launch Agents, Registry, XDG autostart) - Intelligent notifications (launches, budget alerts, idle warnings)

Menu Structure:

CloudWorkStation [Icon]
├── 🚀 Quick Launch → Python ML, R Research, Ubuntu Desktop
├── 💻 My Workspaces (3 running)
├── 💰 Cost Summary ($42.50 this month)
├── ⚙️  Preferences
└── ⏹️  Quit

3. 📊 AWS Quota Management (#57-60)¶

Status: Planned
Why: Users surprised by AWS quota limits and capacity failures

Features: - Quota awareness (vCPU limits, instance type limits, storage) - Pre-launch validation with quota impact analysis - Intelligent AZ failover on InsufficientInstanceCapacity - AWS Health Dashboard monitoring for outages - Quota increase request assistance

Example:

$ cws admin quota show --region us-west-2

📊 AWS Service Quotas - us-west-2

vCPU Limits:
  Standard: 24/32 (75% used) ⚠️
  GPU:      0/8 (0% used) ✅

Recommendations:
  ⚠️  Consider requesting vCPU increase for compute-intensive work

4. 🔐 Multi-User Authentication (Phase 1)¶

Status: Planned
Why: Institutional deployments need proper authentication

Features: - OAuth/OIDC integration (Google, Microsoft, institutional SSO) - LDAP/Active Directory support - Token validation and session management - Role-based access control (RBAC) foundation

v0.6.1 (Q2 2026): TUI Completeness & Advanced Features¶

Auto-Update Phase 2: Assisted Updates¶

• Platform detection (Homebrew, apt, manual install)
• Automated update workflow with checksum verification
• Backup and rollback support

GUI System Tray Phase 3: Advanced Features¶

• Quick Launch from system tray
• Context-aware menu (recent templates, instances needing attention)
• Hover tooltip with cost summary

TUI Enhancements¶

• Project member management (add/remove members in TUI)
• Project-filtered instance views
• Cost breakdown visualization
• Hibernation savings display

v0.7.0 (Q3 2026): Advanced UI & GPU Scheduling¶

5. 🎯 EC2 Capacity Blocks for ML (#63)¶

Status: Planned
Why: Large ML workloads need guaranteed GPU availability

What are Capacity Blocks? - Reserve GPU capacity 1-14 days in advance (up to 182 days) - Guaranteed capacity for P5, P4d, Trn1 instances - 10-20% discount vs on-demand pricing - Advance booking up to 8 weeks

Features (Phases 1-2): - Search for available capacity blocks - Purchase with budget integration - Upfront payment with immutability warnings

Example:

$ cws capacity-blocks search \
  --instance-type p5.48xlarge \
  --instance-count 4 \
  --duration 48h \
  --earliest-start "2025-11-15"

Found 3 available offerings:

1. Offering ID: cbr-0123456789abcdefg
   Instance Type: p5.48xlarge × 4 instances
   Duration: 48 hours (2 days)
   Start: 2025-11-15 00:00 UTC
   Total Cost: $6,060.67 ($31.46/hour per instance)
   Discount: ~15% vs on-demand

To reserve: cws capacity-blocks purchase cbr-0123456789abcdefg

Auto-Update Phase 3: Background Updates¶

• Daemon-managed background update checks
• Auto-download with user permission
• Release channel support (stable/beta/dev)

Multi-User Authentication Phase 2¶

• Complete OAuth/OIDC integration
• SAML support for enterprise SSO
• Full RBAC implementation

v0.7.1 (Q3 2026): Capacity Block Scheduling¶

Capacity Blocks Phases 3-4: Scheduled Launch & Management¶

Status: Planned

Features: - Launch instances using capacity reservation ID - Scheduled auto-launch when reservation becomes active - Scheduling Options: Daemon-based (simple) OR Lambda-based (reliable, AWS-managed) - Utilization tracking (X/N instances used) - Cost analytics integration - Underutilization warnings

Scheduling Challenge: Reliable auto-launch requires daemon to be running OR AWS Lambda function: - Daemon-based: Simple, works locally (requires computer running) - Lambda + EventBridge: Highly reliable, AWS-managed (~$0 cost) - Recommended: Hybrid approach with user choice

v0.7.2 (Q4 2026): GUI Enhancements¶

Capacity Blocks Phase 5: GUI Integration¶

• Visual calendar picker for date selection
• Reservation dashboard with timeline view
• Cost comparison charts
• Scheduled launch interface

🚀 Completed Features¶

Phase 1-4: Foundation (v0.1.0 - v0.4.5)¶

✅ Distributed architecture (daemon + CLI client)
✅ Multi-modal access (CLI/TUI/GUI parity)
✅ Template system with inheritance
✅ Hibernation & cost optimization
✅ Project-based budget management

Phase 4.6: Professional GUI (v0.4.6 - September 2025)¶

✅ Cloudscape Design System migration (AWS-native components)
✅ Professional tabbed interface
✅ Enterprise-grade accessibility (WCAG AA)

Phase 5A: Multi-User Foundation (v0.5.0 - September 2025)¶

✅ Dual user system (system users + persistent research users)
✅ SSH key management with Ed25519/RSA support
✅ EFS integration for persistent home directories
✅ Complete CLI/TUI integration

Phase 5B: Template Marketplace (v0.5.2 - October 2025)¶

✅ Multi-registry support (community, institutional, private)
✅ Template discovery with advanced search
✅ Security validation and quality analysis
✅ Ratings, reviews, and badges

📊 Feature Status¶

v0.5.6 Components (Q4 2025 - Q1 2026)¶

Future Releases (v0.6.0+)¶

Legend: ✅ Complete | 🟡 In Progress | 📋 Planned

🎯 Success Metrics¶

CloudWorkStation tracks these metrics to measure progress:

Current State (v0.5.5)¶

• ⏱️ Time to first workspace: ~15 minutes (needs improvement)
• 🧭 Navigation complexity: 14 flat items (needs simplification)
• 😃 User confusion rate: ~40% of support tickets (needs reduction)
• 🎯 CLI first-attempt success: ~60% (needs improvement)

Target State (v0.6.0)¶

• ⏱️ Time to first workspace: 30 seconds
• 🧭 Navigation complexity: 6 primary categories
• 😃 User confusion rate: <15% of support tickets
• 🎯 CLI first-attempt success: >85%
• 📈 Version adoption: >70% on latest within 7 days

💡 How to Contribute¶

Found a feature request?
Create an issue: github.com/scttfrdmn/cloudworkstation/issues/new

Want to discuss the roadmap?
Join discussions: github.com/scttfrdmn/cloudworkstation/discussions

Technical implementation details?
See: Technical Debt Backlog

📚 Related Documentation¶

• VISION.md - Long-term product vision
• UX Evaluation - Current UX issues
• Technical Debt Backlog - Implementation tracking
• GitHub Projects - Sprint planning

Questions? Open a GitHub Discussion or check existing issues.