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Dev Containers

A dev container is a complete, reproducible development environment defined as code. It allows you to develop inside an isolated container using all required tools, dependencies, and settings, regardless of your host system.

What is it used for here?

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  • Ensures consistent development environment for every developer, every time.
  • Works out of the box in GitHub Codespaces, VS Code Remote Containers, and compatible tools.
  • Automates installation of Python, Docker, uv, Commitizen, and other essential tools.
  • Runs make init automatically after starting the container, so the project is ready to use immediately.

Features

  • Based on the official mcr.microsoft.com/devcontainers/python:1-3.110-bookworm image (Python 3.10).
  • Installs and configures:
    • Docker (with Buildx and Compose v2)
    • uv (Python dependency manager)
    • GitHub CLI
    • GitHub Actions runner
    • VS Code Python, Pylance, Ruff, and MyPy extensions
  • Runs make init after container creation to set up dependencies and git hooks.
  • All project commands and tools are available as if run locally.

How to use it?

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You can use dev containers in various ways depending on your development setup

  • Install the Dev Containers extension.
  • Open the project folder in VS Code.
  • Click “Reopen in Container” when prompted, or open the Command Palette (F1) and run “Dev Containers: Reopen in Container”.
  • Just click “Code > Codespaces > Create codespace on main” in your repository on GitHub.

Configuration

All configuration for Devcontainers in this template is located in devcontainer.json.

Example workflow

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  1. Clone the repository.
  2. Open it in VS Code and reopen in container (or launch a Codespace).
  3. Wait for the container to build and initialize (tools and dependencies are installed automatically).
  4. Start developing! Use make commands, run tests, or launch the app as you would locally.

Notes

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  • All development tools, dependencies, and environment variables are isolated from your host system.
  • Any changes to .devcontainer/devcontainer.json will trigger a rebuild on the next launch.
  • The initial setup (make init) is fully automated for a zero-config first run.

For more details on configuration, see the devcontainer.json specification and VS Code Dev Containers documentation.