Envbuilder
Envbuilder is an open-source tool that builds development environments fromdev container configuration files.Unlike theDev Containers integration,Envbuilder transforms the workspace image itself rather than running containersinside the workspace.
Envbuilder is well-suited for Kubernetes-native deployments without privilegedcontainers, environments where Docker is unavailable or restricted, andworkflows where administrators need infrastructure-level control over imagebuilds, caching, and security scanning. For workspaces with Docker available,theDev Containers Integration offers container managementwith dashboard visibility and multi-container support.
Dev containers provide developers with increased autonomy and control over theirCoder cloud development environments.
By using dev containers, developers can customize their workspaces with toolspre-approved by platform teams in registries likeJFrog Artifactory. This simplifiesworkflows, reduces the need for tickets and approvals, and promotes greaterindependence for developers.
Prerequisites
An administrator should construct or choose a base image and create a templatethat includes adevcontainer_builder image before a developer team configuresdev containers.
Devcontainer Features
Dev container Features allowowners of a project to specify self-contained units of code and runtimeconfiguration that can be composed together on top of an existing base image.This is a good place to install project-specific tools, such aslanguage-specific runtimes and compilers.
Coder Envbuilder
Envbuilder is an open-source projectmaintained by Coder that runs dev containers via Coder templates and yourunderlying infrastructure. Envbuilder can run on Docker or Kubernetes.
It is independently packaged and versioned from the centralized Coderopen-source project. This means that Envbuilder can be used with Coder, but itis not required. It also means that dev container builds can scale independentlyof the Coder control plane and even run within a CI/CD pipeline.