Claude DevContainer Bootstrap

A customizable bootstrap tool for creating projects with Claude Code devcontainer support, optimized for both home and corporate environments.

Features

• ✅ Automatic devcontainer setup with Claude Code
• ✅ Corporate SSL certificate support (Zscaler, etc.)
• ✅ Pre-configured MCP servers (task-master-ai, Context7)
• ✅ VS Code extensions for TypeScript/JavaScript development
• ✅ Lifecycle hooks for custom initialization
• ✅ Firewall allowlist configuration

Usage

# Make the script executable (first time only)
chmod +x create.sh

# Create project in current directory
./create.sh <project_name>

# Create project in specific directory
./create.sh <project_name> <workdir>

# Examples:
./create.sh myproject                    # Creates ./myproject
./create.sh myproject /home/user/work    # Creates /home/user/work/myproject
./create.sh myproject ../projects        # Creates ../projects/myproject (relative to bootstrap dir)

Setup Instructions

1. Corporate Certificate (Optional - for Zscaler/SSL environments)

Place your corporate SSL certificate at ~/.ssl/certs/zscaler.crt on your host machine:

mkdir -p ~/.ssl/certs
cp /path/to/your/corporate-cert.crt ~/.ssl/certs/zscaler.crt

The certificate will be automatically detected and configured for all development tools.

2. Perplexity API Key (Optional - for enhanced task-master-ai)

Set the environment variable before opening the devcontainer:

export PERPLEXITY_API_KEY="your-key"
# Or add to your shell profile for permanent setup

Customization

1. Environment Variables

Edit templates/.env.example to define default environment variables for new projects.

2. Firewall Allowlist

Add allowed domains to templates/firewall-allowlist.txt:

api.mycompany.com
*.internal.corp
database.staging.com

3. Lifecycle Hooks

The bootstrap includes two lifecycle hooks:

• pre-create.sh: Runs before container setup (SSL certs, system config)
• post-create.sh: Runs after container is ready (npm installs, user config)

Edit these in templates/init-scripts/ to customize initialization.

4. MCP Servers

Edit templates/mcp-servers.json to configure MCP servers:

• task-master-ai (pre-configured with Perplexity support)
• Context7
• Add your own MCP servers

5. Post-Login Setup

After VS Code devcontainer is running and Claude Code is authenticated:

1. Run the setup prompts from templates/claude-setup-prompts.md
2. Configure Claude Code default model (Sonnet recommended)
3. Initialize TaskMaster AI with project-specific settings
4. Set up PRD analysis and development team subagents

What Gets Created

Each new project includes:

• 📁 .devcontainer/ - Full devcontainer configuration
• 📄 .env - Environment variables from template
• 📄 .mcp.json - MCP server configuration
• 📄 templates/claude-setup-prompts.md - Post-login setup instructions
• 🔧 Customized devcontainer with:
  • Project-specific container name
  • VS Code extensions for TypeScript/React development
  • Lifecycle hooks for initialization
  • Corporate SSL certificate support
  • Firewall rules

VS Code Extensions Included

• TypeScript development tools
• Pretty TypeScript errors
• Error Lens
• Path IntelliSense
• TODO Tree & Highlight
• Auto rename/close tags
• Tailwind CSS
• Prisma
• DotENV
• YAML support

Structure

templates/
├── .env.example              # Environment variables template
├── firewall-allowlist.txt   # Additional allowed domains
├── mcp-servers.json         # MCP server configuration
├── claude-setup-prompts.md  # Post-login Claude Code setup instructions
└── init-scripts/            # Lifecycle hooks
    ├── pre-create.sh        # Pre-container setup (SSL certs)
    └── post-create.sh       # Post-container setup (npm installs)

Requirements

• Docker Desktop
• VS Code with Dev Containers extension
• Git
• Node.js/npm
• DevContainer CLI (npm install -g @devcontainers/cli) - for testing

Troubleshooting

SSL/Certificate Issues in Corporate Environment: Ensure your certificate is at ~/.ssl/certs/zscaler.crt before creating the project.

MCP Servers Not Working: Restart Claude Code session after modifying .mcp.json.

Extensions Not Loading: Rebuild the container after modifying extensions.