For some unknown reason, the local versions of the courses stopped loading. That is, the files needed for work aren’t loading, and the VSC design itself doesn’t change. In fact, there’s not even a prompt at the bottom indicating that any files are starting to download. This problem didn’t exist before, or it did exist, but was resolved by simply recreating the repository folder.
I’ve already completely reinstalled VSC and Docker, and deleted absolutely all related files. I suspect git config, but I highly doubt it’s interfering. This happened on this task:
Build a Periodic Table Database. Afterwards, the problem reappeared on older projects I’d already completed. I’m following the instructions exactly as directed, so I can’t figure out what’s causing the problem. Github codespaces work fine, but only if I run them in a browser.
Welcome 
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I suggest doing more debugging - use the terminal to see what files are there. Check for .vscode/settings.json to see if some files are simply being hidden.
Look in the outputs of VSCode to check for errors either in the main host or in the extensions.
One issue I have come across a lot as a tooling developer is the Dev Containers extension is still pre 1.0.0 - it is unstable, and often experiences regressions. Sometimes, it works to just install an older version of this extension.
Hope this helps
I found the problem. It turned out to be the git config, so all I had to do was enter the following:
git config --global commit.gpgsign false git config --global commit.sshsign false git config --global --unset gpg.format gitconfig --global --unset user.signingkey