diff --git a/ci/README.md b/ci/README.md
index a20c00bdc..b09545246 100644
--- a/ci/README.md
+++ b/ci/README.md
@@ -78,6 +78,8 @@ You can disable minification by setting `MINIFY=`.
   - Used to configure [nfpm](https://github.com/goreleaser/nfpm) to generate .deb and .rpm
 - [./build/code-server-nfpm.sh](./build/code-server-nfpm.sh)
   - Entrypoint script for code-server for .deb and .rpm
+- [./build/code-server.service](./build/code-server.service)
+  - systemd user service packaged into the debs and rpms
 - [./build/release-github-draft.sh](./build/release-github-draft.sh) (`yarn release:github-draft`)
   - Uses [hub](https://github.com/github/hub) to create a draft release with a template description
 - [./build/release-github-assets.sh](./build/release-github-assets.sh) (`yarn release:github-assets`)
diff --git a/ci/build/code-server.service b/ci/build/code-server.service
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..414f54515
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ci/build/code-server.service
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+[Unit]
+Description=code-server
+After=network.target
+
+[Service]
+Type=exec
+ExecStart=/usr/bin/code-server
+Restart=always
+
+[Install]
+WantedBy=multi-user.target
diff --git a/ci/build/nfpm.yaml b/ci/build/nfpm.yaml
index efea4ece0..c290eb18b 100644
--- a/ci/build/nfpm.yaml
+++ b/ci/build/nfpm.yaml
@@ -13,4 +13,5 @@ license: "MIT"
 bindir: "/usr/bin"
 files:
   ./ci/build/code-server-nfpm.sh: /usr/bin/code-server
+  ./ci/build/code-server.service: /usr/lib/systemd/user/code-server.service
   ./release-static/**/*: "/usr/lib/code-server/"