# Development Containers

A reference implementation for the specification that can create and configure a dev container from a devcontainer.json.

Repository: https://github.com/devcontainers/cli
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/development-containers
Homepage: https://containers.dev
Language: TypeScript
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Topics: devcontainers, containers
Last push: 2026-08-25T15:53:00+00:00
Link (homepage): https://containers.dev
Link (site_page): https://containers.dev/features

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 77/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-02T17:46:02.011165+00:00)
- activity 99, release rhythm 35, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 1589, "days_push": 8, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: no_releases
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 2914, forks 445 (observed 2026-08-28T04:07:29.941258+00:00)

## What it is
An open specification (devcontainer.json) and supporting CLI, images, features, and templates for using containers as full-featured, reproducible development environments. It standardizes dev environment configuration so tools like VS Code, GitHub Codespaces, and CI systems can build and run consistent containerized coding environments.

## Use cases
- set up a reproducible dev environment in a container
- share devcontainer.json configuration with my team
- run the same dev container locally and in CI
- preconfigure tools and runtimes for a codebase
- create dev container templates and features for a tech stack
- avoid works-on-my-machine environment issues

## When to choose
- you want consistent, version-controlled development environments across a team
- you use VS Code, GitHub Codespaces, or other supporting editors
- you want local dev setup to match CI builds
- you need to share reusable container setup steps via features and templates

## When to avoid
- you only need lightweight dependency management without containers
- your project cannot run in Linux-based containers
- you want fully orchestrated multi-service production deployments rather than dev environments

## Facets
- artifact type: infra-config
- maturity: active
- function: container-runtime, configuration-management, developer-tools, ci-cd
- domain: developer-tools
- platform: cross-platform, cli, cloud
- tags: devcontainers, devcontainer-json, specification, development-environments, reproducible-environments, containers, devops, automation, docker

## Member repositories
- devcontainers/cli (main) score 77
- devcontainers/spec (docs) score 65
- devcontainers/images (infra) score 99
- devcontainers/features (plugin) score 77
- devcontainers/templates (examples) score 76

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:07:29.941258+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-29T17:54:16.107967+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/devcontainers/cli (fetched 2026-08-28T04:07:29.941258+00:00, sha 581ce956c95f)
  - homepage: https://containers.dev (fetched 2026-08-29T08:49:55.382702+00:00, sha af7d19d1e06a)
  - site_page: https://containers.dev/features (fetched 2026-08-29T08:49:55.391932+00:00, sha 2ea1066df06e)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.