Empty workspace generates a .code-workspace with no folders, so the editor opens with nothing mounted

Describe the bug

When starting an empty workspace (one whose devfile has no projects, dependentProjects, or starterProjects, e.g. the dashboard's built-in "Empty Workspace" sample), the che-code launcher generates a .code-workspace file that has no folders array. As a result, VS Code / che-code opens with an empty Explorer and no folder mounted, even though /projects exists and is where the user is expected to work.

The generated /projects/.code-workspace looks like this:

{
	"extensions": {
		"recommendations": [
			"eamodio.gitlens",
			"redhat.vscode-yaml",
			"..."
		]
	}
}

Note the extensions.recommendations block is present (injected by the vscode-editor-configurations handling) but there is no folders entry, so nothing is open.

Che version

7.119.0 (also reproduced on current che-incubator/che-code main)

Steps to reproduce

1. Open the Dashboard and go to Create Workspace.
2. Under "Select a Sample", filter by Empty and start the Empty Workspace sample (a devfile that is just schemaVersion + generateName: empty, with no projects).
3. Wait for the workspace to start and the editor to open.
4. Open a terminal and inspect the generated workspace file:
   复制

   cat /projects/.code-workspace

Expected behavior

The workspace should open with the /projects directory mounted in the Explorer. The generated .code-workspace should contain a folders entry pointing at PROJECTS_ROOT when there are no devfile projects to add, e.g.:

{
	"folders": [
		{ "name": "projects", "path": "/projects" }
	],
	"extensions": { "recommendations": ["..."] }
}

Runtime

OpenShift Dev Spaces / che-code

Root cause

The workspace file is generated by the che-code launcher in launcher/src/code-workspace.ts, CodeWorkspace.generate().

For an empty workspace:

1. No VSCODE_DEFAULT_WORKSPACE is set and there are no projects, so generate() falls through to the default path branch and creates a brand-new empty object:
   typescript复制

   workspace = {} as Workspace;   // no `folders` key
   saveRequired = true;

2. It then calls synchronizeProjects() for projects, dependentProjects, and starterProjects. synchronizeProjects() bails out on the first line when the array is undefined:
   typescript复制

   async synchronizeProjects(workspace, projects?) {
     if (!projects) { return false; }   // empty workspace: returns here, folders never initialized
     ...
   }

   So folders is never populated (and never even initialized to []).
3. The launcher writes {} to /projects/.code-workspace. Later, extension recommendations are merged into the same file, producing the extensions-only file shown above.

Because the resulting file is a multi-root .code-workspace with no folders, VS Code opens a zero-folder workspace and the Explorer is empty.

Suggested fix

In CodeWorkspace.generate(), after the synchronizeProjects() calls and before writing the file, ensure folders always contains at least PROJECTS_ROOT when it would otherwise be empty:

if (!workspace!.folders || workspace!.folders.length === 0) {
  workspace!.folders = [{ name: 'projects', path: env.PROJECTS_ROOT }];
  saveRequired = true;
}

This is a no-op for workspaces that already resolve folders (single-project, multi-repo, or a VSCODE_DEFAULT_WORKSPACE file that already lists folders), and it fixes the empty-workspace case at the source.

A PR against che-incubator/che-code implementing this will be linked to this issue.