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Create reproducible development environments with Dev Containers, Nix flakes, and Devbox for consistent toolchains across teams. Use when onboarding developers, standardizing build environments, or eliminating "works on my machine" problems.
npx skill4agent add bagelhole/devops-security-agent-skills devcontainers-nix// .devcontainer/devcontainer.json
{
"name": "My Project",
"image": "mcr.microsoft.com/devcontainers/base:ubuntu-22.04",
"features": {
"ghcr.io/devcontainers/features/node:1": { "version": "20" },
"ghcr.io/devcontainers/features/python:1": { "version": "3.12" },
"ghcr.io/devcontainers/features/docker-in-docker:2": {},
"ghcr.io/devcontainers/features/kubectl-helm-minikube:1": {}
},
"forwardPorts": [3000, 5432],
"postCreateCommand": "npm install",
"customizations": {
"vscode": {
"extensions": [
"dbaeumer.vscode-eslint",
"esbenp.prettier-vscode",
"ms-python.python"
],
"settings": {
"editor.formatOnSave": true
}
}
}
}// .devcontainer/devcontainer.json
{
"name": "Full Stack Dev",
"dockerComposeFile": "docker-compose.yml",
"service": "app",
"workspaceFolder": "/workspace",
"forwardPorts": [3000, 5432, 6379],
"postCreateCommand": "npm install && npx prisma migrate dev"
}# .devcontainer/docker-compose.yml
services:
app:
build:
context: ..
dockerfile: .devcontainer/Dockerfile
volumes:
- ..:/workspace:cached
command: sleep infinity
depends_on: [db, redis]
db:
image: postgres:16
environment:
POSTGRES_DB: dev
POSTGRES_USER: dev
POSTGRES_PASSWORD: dev
volumes:
- pgdata:/var/lib/postgresql/data
ports:
- "5432:5432"
redis:
image: redis:7-alpine
ports:
- "6379:6379"
volumes:
pgdata:# .devcontainer/Dockerfile
FROM mcr.microsoft.com/devcontainers/base:ubuntu-22.04
# System dependencies
RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y \
build-essential \
curl \
git \
jq \
unzip \
&& rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
# Install project-specific tools
RUN curl -fsSL https://get.opentofu.org/install-opentofu.sh | sh -s -- --install-method standalone
RUN curl -LO "https://dl.k8s.io/release/$(curl -sL https://dl.k8s.io/release/stable.txt)/bin/linux/amd64/kubectl" \
&& install kubectl /usr/local/bin/
# Non-root user setup
USER vscode
WORKDIR /workspace# flake.nix
{
description = "Project development environment";
inputs = {
nixpkgs.url = "github:NixOS/nixpkgs/nixos-unstable";
flake-utils.url = "github:numtide/flake-utils";
};
outputs = { self, nixpkgs, flake-utils }:
flake-utils.lib.eachDefaultSystem (system:
let
pkgs = nixpkgs.legacyPackages.${system};
in {
devShells.default = pkgs.mkShell {
buildInputs = with pkgs; [
# Languages
nodejs_20
python312
go_1_22
rustc
cargo
# Tools
docker-compose
kubectl
kubernetes-helm
opentofu
awscli2
jq
yq-go
# Databases
postgresql_16
redis
];
shellHook = ''
echo "Dev environment loaded"
export PROJECT_ROOT=$(pwd)
export PATH="$PROJECT_ROOT/node_modules/.bin:$PATH"
'';
};
}
);
}# Enter the dev shell
nix develop
# Or run a single command
nix develop --command bash -c "node --version && go version"
# Build and run
nix build
nix run# Lock flake inputs for reproducibility
nix flake lock
nix flake update # Update all inputs
# Update a specific input
nix flake lock --update-input nixpkgs# Install Devbox
curl -fsSL https://get.jetify.com/devbox | bash
# Initialize project
devbox init
# Add packages
devbox add nodejs@20 python@3.12 postgresql@16
devbox add go@1.22 kubectl helm
# Enter shell
devbox shell
# Run commands without entering shell
devbox run node --version{
"$schema": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jetify-com/devbox/main/.schema/devbox.schema.json",
"packages": [
"nodejs@20",
"python@3.12",
"go@1.22",
"kubectl@1.29",
"kubernetes-helm@3.14",
"opentofu@1.8",
"awscli2@2.15",
"jq@1.7",
"postgresql@16",
"redis@7"
],
"env": {
"PROJECT_ROOT": "$PWD",
"DATABASE_URL": "postgresql://localhost:5432/dev"
},
"shell": {
"init_hook": [
"echo 'Dev environment ready'",
"npm install --silent 2>/dev/null || true"
],
"scripts": {
"dev": "npm run dev",
"test": "npm test",
"db:start": "pg_ctl -D .devbox/virtenv/postgresql/data start",
"db:stop": "pg_ctl -D .devbox/virtenv/postgresql/data stop",
"db:migrate": "npx prisma migrate dev"
}
}
}# Run project scripts
devbox run dev
devbox run test
devbox run db:start
# Generate direnv integration (auto-activate on cd)
devbox generate direnv
# Generate Dockerfile from devbox config
devbox generate dockerfile# Install direnv
devbox add direnv
# Generate .envrc
devbox generate direnv
# Allow direnv
direnv allow# .envrc (auto-generated)
eval "$(devbox generate direnv --print-envrc)"cd# .github/workflows/ci.yml
name: CI
on: [push, pull_request]
jobs:
test:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
- uses: jetify-com/devbox-install-action@v0.11.0
with:
enable-cache: true
- run: devbox run test
- run: devbox run lintname: CI
on: [push, pull_request]
jobs:
test:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
- uses: cachix/install-nix-action@v26
with:
nix_path: nixpkgs=channel:nixos-unstable
- uses: cachix/cachix-action@v14
with:
name: my-project
authToken: '${{ secrets.CACHIX_AUTH_TOKEN }}'
- run: nix develop --command bash -c "npm ci && npm test"// .devcontainer/devcontainer.json — works in Codespaces
{
"name": "Codespaces Dev",
"image": "mcr.microsoft.com/devcontainers/universal:2",
"features": {
"ghcr.io/devcontainers/features/node:1": { "version": "20" }
},
"postCreateCommand": "npm install",
"portsAttributes": {
"3000": { "label": "App", "onAutoForward": "openBrowser" },
"5432": { "label": "Postgres", "onAutoForward": "ignore" }
}
}| Feature | Dev Containers | Nix Flakes | Devbox |
|---|---|---|---|
| Learning curve | Low | High | Low |
| Reproducibility | Good (Docker) | Excellent | Excellent (Nix) |
| Speed | Slow (build image) | Fast (cached) | Fast (cached) |
| IDE support | VS Code, JetBrains | Any terminal | Any terminal |
| CI integration | Docker-based | Nix actions | Devbox action |
| Offline support | Limited | Full | Full |
| macOS/Linux/Win | All | macOS/Linux | macOS/Linux |
latestflake.lockdevbox.lockdevbox shellnix develop| Issue | Solution |
|---|---|
| Nix build slow first time | Use binary cache (Cachix), |
| Dev Container won't build | Check Docker disk space, rebuild with |
| Package not in Nixpkgs | Search at search.nixos.org, or use |
| Devbox hash mismatch | Run |
| direnv not activating | Run |