A First Look at Huawei Cloud AI DevSpace Free Trial

On Monday morning, 2 November 2026, I started the day in the Huawei Cloud Developer Growth Center, then opened the free trial of AI DevSpace to see what a first session actually looks like. This is a short, first-hand account of that start, not a review of every feature.

How the trial started

From the Growth Center I followed the daily AI DevSpace task to the AI Agent development practice center and then into AI DevSpace. I chose the trial version, which is described as free, starting in seconds, with no quota consumed, and with data not retained after the trial ends. The persistent version, by contrast, is billed by core-hours and keeps data when it shuts down, so I deliberately stayed with the free trial for this first look.

After a short preparation step, the workspace opened with a countdown at the top. It showed about three hours remaining, and a note at the bottom of the page warned that the trial container environment is released after three hours and that a new start creates a fresh container. That single detail shaped how I used the session: anything worth keeping should be saved elsewhere before the time runs out.

What the workspace looked like at first

The left side listed AI Shell, CodeArts, WorkSwarm and DeepSeek Harness, with a session panel below them. The workspace itself started empty, which was useful in its own way: there was no leftover project to confuse the first steps, but also nothing to run until I created something or asked the assistant a question.

I created a new AI Shell session and asked it, in plain terms, what the trial session includes and how to check its remaining time, without asking it to create or deploy any cloud resources. The assistant began by checking the workspace and its own reference material. It found the workspace empty, and it worked through several environment checks while it prepared an answer. That process was a reminder that an AI coding assistant in a cloud workspace is not just a chat box: it can inspect files and run commands, so a prompt should say clearly what it should not do as well as what it should do.

Three practical takeaways

First, the remaining time is visible at the top of the workspace, so it is easy to keep an eye on the three-hour limit. Second, the trial version is a good place to learn the layout and try a conversation, precisely because it does not consume quota, but it is not a place to store work. Third, a first session goes more smoothly with a small, specific question and a clear boundary, such as no new cloud resources, rather than a broad request to set something up.

What I will try next

Next time I want to use a trial session for a small, complete task, for example writing and running a short script inside the workspace and saving the result outside the trial container before it is released. That would turn a first look into a finished piece of work, and it would test the part of the workflow I have not yet used: creating a file, running it, and taking the result with me.

For now, the value of this morning was simple. I confirmed the entry path from the Growth Center, confirmed the free trial starts without consuming quota, saw the three-hour countdown and the empty starting workspace, and started a real AI Shell conversation inside it. A trial is only useful if you know its limits, and this one states them clearly from the start.