DevContainer Setup Skill

When to Use

• User asks to set up a DevContainer or development environment
• User mentions AI-ready development setup
• Project needs containerized development with multiple language runtimes

Instructions

Step 1: Create directory structure

mkdir -p .devcontainer/snowflake-ai-tools

Step 2: Copy templates

Copy these files from the skill templates folder:

Source	Destination
templates/devcontainer.json	.devcontainer/devcontainer.json
templates/snowflake-ai-tools/devcontainer-feature.json	.devcontainer/snowflake-ai-tools/devcontainer-feature.json
templates/snowflake-ai-tools/install.sh	.devcontainer/snowflake-ai-tools/install.sh

If no requirements.txt exists in project root, also copy:

Source	Destination
templates/requirements.txt	requirements.txt

Step 3: Make scripts executable

chmod +x .devcontainer/snowflake-ai-tools/install.sh

Step 4: Remind user to create host directories

Run this on their host machine before opening the devcontainer:

mkdir -p ~/.m2 ~/.npm ~/.cache/uv ~/.cargo ~/.snowflake ~/.claude ~/.cursor

Step 5: Remind user about config files

These should exist on the host:

• ~/.snowflake/connections.toml - Snowflake CLI config
• ~/.claude/ - Claude Code config

Template Locations

All templates are in this skill's templates/ folder:

• templates/devcontainer.json
• templates/snowflake-ai-tools/
• templates/requirements.txt

Troubleshooting

Issue	Solution
NPM EACCES errors	sudo chown -R $(whoami) "$HOME/.npm"
UID mismatch on Linux	Verify updateRemoteUserUID: true in devcontainer.json
Cache permission issues	Run snowflake-ai-tools-setup to re-fix permissions
Mount directory not found	Run mkdir -p ~/.m2 ~/.npm ~/.cache/uv ~/.cargo ~/.snowflake ~/.claude ~/.cursor on host
Tools not found	Check Docker build logs for install errors
Different user than vscode	Update mount targets and containerEnv paths in devcontainer.json

Reference

See README.md for detailed documentation on:

• What's included (features, tools, mounts)
• Compatibility (base images, architectures)
• Python environment setup