No. 7 of 39 ·Container Development Environments

Dev Container CLI

Windows · Mac · Linux · Extension

Freedom report

Three barsScore 6.5

Free tierA free tier is on its own pricing page
Open codeNo open-source code on record
Runs widely3 of 6 device platforms
DocumentedPlans, terms and facts published

Dev Container CLI is ranked #7 of 39 in container development environments on Freedom251. It runs on Browser extension, Linux, macOS, Windows. There is a free plan.

Dev Container CLI plans and pricing

All plans

Free Free MIT-licensed CLI · install via script or npm github.com · 4 Oct 2026

Compared on container development environments

Desktop platforms: Linux, macOS; Windows via WSL2
Compose workflows: Yes
IDE integration: Yes

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The record

Purpose: The CLI creates and configures a development container from a devcontainer.json file.
Reference implementation: The Dev Container CLI is a reference implementation of the Development Container Specification.
Commands: It includes commands to build images, start containers, run lifecycle commands, read configuration, execute commands, and manage features and templates.
Reproducibility: The CLI generates lockfiles by default when building or starting containers to pin feature versions for reproducible builds.
CI use: The project describes using the CLI to prebuild dev container configurations in CI or DevOps workflows.
CI integrations: The specification project says a GitHub Action and an Azure DevOps Task are available for running a repository’s dev container in CI builds.
Editor integration: The VS Code Dev Containers extension includes a CLI variation that can open a dev container in VS Code.
Supported environments: The standalone install script works on Linux and macOS on x64 and arm64.
Installation requirement: Installing the npm package requires Python and C/C++ tools to build one of its dependencies.
Project status: The repository describes the CLI as being in active development.
License: The CLI project is licensed under the MIT license.
Who it is for: The CLI is intended for direct use and for tools or services that support the Dev Container Specification.
Price from: Free

Where it ranks on Freedom251

Best Container Development Environments in 2026#7 of 39

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Sources

containers.dev/supporting· checked 4 Oct 2026
github.com/devcontainers/cli· checked 4 Oct 2026
github.com/devcontainers/spec· checked 4 Oct 2026