---
display_name: Devcontainers (Docker)
description: Provision envbuilder containers as Coder workspaces
icon: ../../../site/static/icon/docker.png
maintainer_github: coder
verified: true
tags: [container, docker, devcontainer]
---

# Remote Development on Docker Containers (with Devcontainers)

Provision Docker containers as [Coder workspaces](https://coder.com/docs/coder-v2/latest) with this example template.

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## Prerequisites

### Infrastructure

The VM you run Coder on must have a running Docker socket and the `coder` user must be added to the Docker group:

```sh
# Add coder user to Docker group
sudo adduser coder docker

# Restart Coder server
sudo systemctl restart coder

# Test Docker
sudo -u coder docker ps
```

## Architecture

Coder supports devcontainers with [envbuilder](https://github.com/coder/envbuilder), an open source project. Read more about this in [Coder's documentation](https://coder.com/docs/v2/latest/templates/devcontainers).

This template provisions the following resources:

- Docker image (built by Docker socket and kept locally)
- Docker container pod (ephemeral)
- Docker volume (persistent on `/home/coder`)

This means, when the workspace restarts, any tools or files outside of the home directory are not persisted. To pre-bake tools into the workspace (e.g. `python3`), modify the container image. Alternatively, individual developers can [personalize](https://coder.com/docs/v2/latest/dotfiles) their workspaces with dotfiles.

> **Note**
> This template is designed to be a starting point! Edit the Terraform to extend the template to support your use case.

### Editing the image

Edit the `Dockerfile` and run `coder templates push` to update workspaces.