A containerized development environment for working on Onyx.
- Ubuntu 26.04 base image
- Node.js 20, uv, Claude Code
- GitHub CLI (
gh) - Neovim, ripgrep, fd, fzf, jq, make, wget, unzip
- Zsh as default shell (sources host
~/.zshrcif available) - Python venv auto-activation
- Optional opt-in network firewall (default-deny, whitelists npm, GitHub, Anthropic APIs, Sentry, and VS Code update servers)
The ods devtools CLI provides workspace-aware wrappers
for all devcontainer operations (also available as ods dc):
# Start the container
ods dev up
# Open a shell
ods dev into
# Run a command
ods dev exec bun run test
# Stop the container
ods dev stop# Restart the container
ods dev restart
# Pull the latest published image and recreate
ods dev rebuildThe devcontainer uses a prebuilt image published to onyxdotapp/onyx-devcontainer.
The tag is pinned in devcontainer.json — no local build is required.
To build the image locally (e.g. while iterating on the Dockerfile):
docker buildx bake devcontainerThe devcontainer target is defined in docker-bake.hcl at the repo root.
The container runs as the dev user by default (remoteUser in devcontainer.json).
An init script (init-dev-user.sh) runs at container start to ensure the active
user has read/write access to the bind-mounted workspace:
-
Standard Docker —
dev's UID/GID is remapped to match the workspace owner, so file permissions work seamlessly. -
Rootless Docker — The workspace appears as root-owned (UID 0) inside the container due to user-namespace mapping.
ods dev upauto-detects rootless Docker and setsDEVCONTAINER_REMOTE_USER=rootso the container runs as root — which maps back to your host user via the user namespace. New files are owned by your host UID and no ACL workarounds are needed.To override the auto-detection, set
DEVCONTAINER_REMOTE_USERbefore runningods dev up.
.devcontainer/claude-code/CLAUDE.md holds Claude Code instructions that apply only inside
the container (e.g. service hostnames, "no Docker daemon in here"). It is bind-mounted
read-only to /etc/claude-code/CLAUDE.md — Claude Code's managed-policy memory location — so it
loads automatically alongside the project's root CLAUDE.md.
Because it is a live bind mount, editing the file in the repo takes effect on the next Claude
Code session — no image rebuild or container restart required. The directory (rather than the
single file) is mounted so that atomic-save editors don't detach the mount, and so additional
managed config (e.g. managed-settings.json) can be dropped in alongside it later.
The container ships with an opt-in default-deny firewall (init-firewall.sh).
When enabled, it only allows outbound traffic to:
- npm registry
- GitHub
- Anthropic API
- Sentry
- VS Code update servers
To enable it, set ONYX_DEVCONTAINER_FIREWALL=1 in your host environment before
starting the container (e.g. via ods dev up):
export ONYX_DEVCONTAINER_FIREWALL=1
ods dev upThe variable is forwarded into the container via containerEnv and read by
postStartCommand, which then runs init-firewall.sh. Without the variable set
to 1, the firewall script is skipped and the container has unrestricted
outbound network access.
You can also enable the firewall on a running container by running
sudo bash /workspace/.devcontainer/init-firewall.sh from inside it.
The firewall requires the NET_ADMIN and NET_RAW capabilities, which are
always added via runArgs in devcontainer.json so the firewall can be
toggled on after container start without recreating the container.