Getting Started

Welcome to the helpers4 DevContainer Features collection! Pre-configured development environment containers for modern web development.

What is a DevContainer?

A DevContainer is a development container specification that provides a consistent, reproducible development environment. It ensures all team members have the same tools, versions, and configurations.

Quick Start

1. Install VS Code Extension

   Install the DevContainers extension

2. Create devcontainer.json

   {
     "name": "Vite+ Dev",
     "image": "ghcr.io/helpers4/devcontainer/vite-plus:latest",
     "features": {
       "ghcr.io/helpers4/devcontainer/vite-plus": {}
     }
   }

3. Open in Container

   • Press F1 and select “Dev Containers: Open Folder in Container”
   • VS Code will build and start the container
   • You’re ready to code!

Available Features

19 features, published to GHCR. Most are added under "features" in devcontainer.json; vite-plus, typescript-dev, and angular-dev are full base images ("image") that bundle their own toolchain. See each feature’s own page for its exact devcontainer.json snippet and options.

AI coding agents

Feature	Description
claude-dev	Claude Code extension + CLI, with ~/.claude persisted across rebuilds
cline-dev	Cline AI coding agent extension + optional CLI
copilot-dev	Copilot Chat + gh copilot CLI, with shared commit/PR/review instructions
mistral-dev	Mistral Vibe extension, with ~/.vibe persisted across rebuilds
peon-ping	Game-character voice/audio notifications when your AI agent finishes or needs input

Editor & Git tooling

Feature	Description
essential-dev	Baseline environment: Git visualization, Markdown support, editor enhancements
github-dev	gh CLI + GitHub VS Code extensions (Pull Requests & Issues, Actions)
git-absorb	Automatically absorbs staged changes into their logical commits
auto-header	Auto-configures VS Code file headers (license, company, contributors)
dotfiles-sync	Syncs local Git/SSH/GPG/npm/yarn config (and opt-in cloud credentials) into the container
shell-history-per-project	Persists shell history per project (zsh, bash, fish)

Language & build toolchains

Feature	Description
typescript-dev	TypeScript/JavaScript setup — indexing, import management, HTML/CSS tooling
vite-plus	Unified Vite+ toolchain: Vite, Vitest, Oxlint, Oxfmt, Rolldown, tsdown
angular-dev	Angular environment: port forwarding, VS Code extensions, CLI autocompletion
nub	Runs TS/JS files, package.json scripts, and local CLIs directly — no new runtime
playwright-dev	Playwright E2E toolchain: Chromium/Firefox/WebKit deps, cached browser binaries

Infra & caching

Feature	Description
pnpm-store	Shares a single pnpm content-addressable store across repos and rebuilds
package-auto-install	Auto-runs npm/yarn/pnpm/nub install after container creation

Security

Feature	Description
bitwarden-secrets-manager	Installs bws, the Bitwarden Secrets Manager CLI (machine-token auth only)

Note

Retired features (e.g. local-mounts) are kept for reference under Deprecated — don’t install them in new projects.

Automatic Extras

Most of the features above also fix a class of container-specific problems automatically — like a Git config value copied from your host that doesn’t resolve inside the container. Nothing to install or configure — see Automatic Extras for what runs and which features include it.

Combining Features

Mix multiple features for your perfect environment:

{
  "name": "Vite+ Project",
  "image": "ghcr.io/helpers4/devcontainer/vite-plus:latest",
  "features": {
    "ghcr.io/helpers4/devcontainer/shell-history-per-project": {},
    "ghcr.io/helpers4/devcontainer/pnpm-store": {}
  },
  "postCreateCommand": "pnpm install"
}

Configuration Files

All features support standard devcontainer.json configuration:

{
  "name": "Development",
  "image": "ghcr.io/helpers4/devcontainer/vite-plus:latest",
  "features": {},
  "forwardPorts": [3000, 5173],
  "postCreateCommand": "pnpm install",
  "customizations": {
    "vscode": {
      "extensions": ["Vue.volar", "dbaeumer.vscode-eslint"]
    }
  }
}

Next Steps

• Explore individual Features
• Check the GitHub Repository

Support

• GitHub Issues: helpers4/devcontainer

License

LGPL-3.0 — See LICENSE for details.