DevPod Development Environments

Key Features

• Docker provider backend for creating reproducible dev containers using devcontainer.json specifications
• Private Docker registry for caching and storing custom development environment images
• Privileged container access enabling nested Docker operations and system-level development
• DevPod CLI integration supporting workspace creation, management, and SSH access
• Docker socket mounting for direct container orchestration and Docker-in-Docker scenarios
• VS Code integration through DevPod extension for direct IDE connectivity
• Vendor-agnostic development environment provisioning independent of cloud providers
• Local development container caching reducing startup times for repeated environments

Common Use Cases

• 1Creating standardized development environments for distributed teams working on containerized applications
• 2Establishing secure development sandboxes in enterprise environments with strict network policies
• 3Building custom development toolchains with pre-configured language runtimes and debugging tools
• 4Testing application behavior across different development container configurations locally
• 5Providing consistent development environments for open-source projects with complex dependencies
• 6Setting up isolated development workspaces for client projects requiring different tooling versions
• 7Creating reproducible bug reproduction environments that match production container specifications

Prerequisites

• Docker Engine 20.10+ with Docker Compose v2 support
• DevPod CLI installed on local development machine
• Minimum 4GB available RAM for concurrent development containers
• Understanding of devcontainer.json specification and VS Code development containers
• Basic knowledge of Docker registry operations and image management
• Port availability: 8080 for DevPod provider API and 5000 for Docker registry

docker-compose.yml

1services: 
2  devpod-provider: 
3    image: loftsh/devpod-provider-docker:latest
4    container_name: devpod-provider
5    restart: unless-stopped
6    privileged: true
7    ports: 
8      - "${PROVIDER_PORT:-8080}:8080"
9    volumes: 
10      - /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock
11      - devpod_data:/var/lib/devpod
12
13  registry: 
14    image: registry:2
15    container_name: devpod-registry
16    restart: unless-stopped
17    ports: 
18      - "${REGISTRY_PORT:-5000}:5000"
19    volumes: 
20      - registry_data:/var/lib/registry
21
22volumes: 
23  devpod_data: 
24  registry_data: 

.env Template

1# DevPod
2PROVIDER_PORT=8080
3REGISTRY_PORT=5000

Usage Notes

Individual Services(2 services)

Copy individual services to mix and match with your existing compose files.

devpod-provider:
  image: loftsh/devpod-provider-docker:latest
  container_name: devpod-provider
  restart: unless-stopped
  privileged: true
  ports:
    - ${PROVIDER_PORT:-8080}:8080
  volumes:
    - /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock
    - devpod_data:/var/lib/devpod

registry:
  image: registry:2
  container_name: devpod-registry
  restart: unless-stopped
  ports:
    - ${REGISTRY_PORT:-5000}:5000
  volumes:
    - registry_data:/var/lib/registry

Quick Start

1# 1. Create the compose file
2cat > docker-compose.yml << 'EOF'
3services:
4  devpod-provider:
5    image: loftsh/devpod-provider-docker:latest
6    container_name: devpod-provider
7    restart: unless-stopped
8    privileged: true
9    ports:
10      - "${PROVIDER_PORT:-8080}:8080"
11    volumes:
12      - /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock
13      - devpod_data:/var/lib/devpod
14
15  registry:
16    image: registry:2
17    container_name: devpod-registry
18    restart: unless-stopped
19    ports:
20      - "${REGISTRY_PORT:-5000}:5000"
21    volumes:
22      - registry_data:/var/lib/registry
23
24volumes:
25  devpod_data:
26  registry_data:
27EOF
28
29# 2. Create the .env file
30cat > .env << 'EOF'
31# DevPod
32PROVIDER_PORT=8080
33REGISTRY_PORT=5000
34EOF
35
36# 3. Start the services
37docker compose up -d
38
39# 4. View logs
40docker compose logs -f

One-Liner

Run this command to download and set up the recipe in one step:

1curl -fsSL https://docker.recipes/api/recipes/devpod-stack/run | bash

Troubleshooting