Today, devcontainer.json includes scenario specific properties for working without a container orchestrator (by directly referencing an image or Dockerfile) and for using Docker Compose as a simple multi-container orchestrator.

November 3, 2021 - To learn more about creating devcontainer.json files, see Create a Development Container. Development container "Features" are self-contained, shareable units of installation code and dev container configuration.

You can think of features as reusable Dockerfile parts that will be merged into your Dockerfile upon creation. This makes it easy to reuse functionality such as docker-in-docker or install extra tooling such as node or kubectl without having to look up the exact Dockerfile commands.

November 3, 2021 - It allows you to open any folder or repository inside a container and take advantage of Visual Studio Code's full feature set. A devcontainer.json file in your project tells VS Code how to access (or create) a development container with a ...

{ "$schema": "http://json-schema.org/draft-07/schema#", "description": "Defines a dev container", "allowComments": true, "allowTrailingCommas": false, "definitions": { "devContainerCommon": { "type": "object", "properties": { "name": { "type": "string", "description": "A name for the dev container which can be displayed to the user." }, "features": { "type": "object", "description": "Features to add to the dev container.", "additionalProperties": true }, "overrideFeatureInstallOrder": { "type": "array", "description": "Array consisting of the Feature id (without the semantic version) of Features in the order the user wants them to be installed.", "items": { "type": "string" } }, "forwardPorts": { "type": "array", "description": "Ports that are forwarded from the container to the local machine.

With features, you can quickly add tools, runtimes, or libraries to your dev container configuration.

You can use this file to determine the environment of codespaces created for your repository. The contents of this file define a dev container that can include frameworks, tools, extensions, and port forwarding.

Missing a CLI or language in your otherwise perfect container image? Add the relevant Feature to the features property of a devcontainer.json.

2 weeks ago - The devcontainer.json file is a JSON with Comments (JSONC) file that contains metadata and settings required to configure a development container for a given tool and runtime stack.

2 weeks ago - This document explains how to compose development environments by declaring and configuring devcontainer features in devcontainer.json files. It covers feature declaration syntax, configuration options, installation order control, and version locking mechanisms.

Overrides the user that devcontainer.json supporting services tools / runs as in the container (along with sub-processes like terminals, tasks, or debugging). Does not change the user the container as a whole runs as which can be set using ...

Each property mirrors the behavior of the matching property in devcontainer.json, including the behavior that commands are executed from the context of the project workspace folder. For each lifecycle hook (in Feature installation order), each command contributed by a Feature is executed in ...

March 21, 2021 - This settings file let’s you configure VS Code and the way the container runs. It’s named devcontainer.json and is also dropped into the .devcontainer folder in your project.

2 weeks ago - The devcontainer.json file contains metadata and settings required to configure a development container for a specific tool and runtime stack.

These contents should then be merged with any local devcontainer.json file contents at the time the container is created. An array is used so subsequent image builds can simply append changes to the array rather than attempting to merge at that point - which improves compatibility with arbitrary image build systems. Metadata should be representative of with the following structure, using one entry per Dev Container Feature ...

{ "features": { "ghcr.io/coder/devcontainer-features/code-server:1": { "port": 13337, "host": "0.0.0.0" } } } When you modify your devcontainer.json, you need to rebuild the container for changes to take effect.

It is a structured JSON with Comments (jsonc) metadata format that tools can use to store any needed configuration required to develop inside of local or cloud-based containerized coding.

February 5, 2026 - Open the devcontainer.json file and inside the features section, add the reference to the local Feature using auto-completion.

September 15, 2022 - What if my Feature should only install after another one? As a Feature author, you may find that your Feature should install before or after other Features. In your devcontainer-feature.json, you can use the installsAfter property to list Features that should execute before it.

February 5, 2026 - Open the devcontainer.json file and inside the features section, add the reference to the local Feature using auto-completion.