Development workflow

Local Development Environments

You're working on a Python project that requires specific versions of Python and several libraries. With a dev container, you can create a Dockerfile and a devcontainer.json file that installs the necessary Python version and libraries. Whenever you open the project in VS Code, it automatically sets up the environment, and you can start coding immediately.

{
  "name": "Python Dev Container",
  "dockerFile": "Dockerfile",
  "settings": {
    "python.pythonPath": "/usr/local/bin/python3"
  },
  "extensions": [
    "ms-python.python"
  ],
  "postCreateCommand": "pip install -r requirements.txt"
}

FROM python:3.8-slim
 
COPY requirements.txt .
RUN pip install --no-cache-dir -r requirements.txt

Isolated Environments

You want to test a new version of a library without affecting your current setup. You create a new branch and modify the Dockerfile in your dev container to use the new version of the library. If the new version causes issues, your main environment remains unaffected.

FROM node:14
 
RUN npm install -g new-library@beta

Reproducible Setups

Your project uses a specific set of tools and configurations. By committing your devcontainer.json and Dockerfile to the repository, every team member and CI/CD pipeline can use the exact same environment.

{
  "name": "Consistent Dev Environment",
  "dockerFile": "Dockerfile",
  "settings": {
    "editor.formatOnSave": true
  },
  "extensions": [
    "dbaeumer.vscode-eslint",
    "esbenp.prettier-vscode"
  ],
  "postCreateCommand": "npm install"
}

FROM node:14-alpine
 
RUN npm install -g eslint prettier

Tooling Experiments

You want to experiment with the latest version of Go for a new project. You create a dev container that installs the latest Go version and sets up a sample project. If you decide not to proceed, you can delete the container without any impact on your local environment.

{
  "name": "Go Dev Container",
  "image": "golang:latest",
  "postCreateCommand": "go mod tidy"
}