An MCP server for devcontainer that allows you to generate and configure development containers directly from devcontainer.json configuration files using the devcontainers CLI.

Installation

NPX

npx -y mcp-devcontainers

NPM Install

npm install

STDIO Transport

npm start

SSE Transport

npm start sse

HTTP Transport

npm start http

Configuration

MCP Remote Client

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "Devcontainer": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["mcp-remote", "https://ominous-halibut-7vvq7v56vgq6hr5p9-3001.app.github.dev/mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Available Tools

Tool	Description
devcontainer_up	Initializes and starts a devcontainer environment in the specified working folder
devcontainer_run_user_commands	Executes custom postCreateCommand and postStartCommand scripts inside the devcontainer
devcontainer_exec	Runs a custom shell command inside the devcontainer for the specified workspace
devcontainer_cleanup	Executes a docker command to clean up all devcontainer environments
devcontainer_list	Executes a docker command to get a list of all devcontainer environments
devcontainer_workspace_folders	Executes a find command to get all working folders with devcontainer configuration

Features

• Initialization and startup of devcontainer environments
• Execution of post-creation and post-startup commands
• Running arbitrary commands inside devcontainer
• Listing and cleanup of devcontainer environments
• Discovery of working folders with devcontainer configurations
• Multiple transport options (STDIO, SSE, HTTP)
• Built on devcontainers/cli

Notes

Docker is required in the execution environment. For a GitHub Codespaces trial version, make the forwarded port publicly accessible and add '/mcp' to the URL for streaming HTTP connections. The devcontainer_up command typically requires significant time to start containers.