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atmos devcontainer start

Use this command to start a devcontainer. If the container doesn't exist, it will be created. If it exists but is stopped, it will be started.

atmos devcontainer start --help

Usage​

atmos devcontainer start <name> [flags]

Arguments​

name
Name of the devcontainer to start (from atmos.yaml configuration)

Flags​

--instance string
Instance name for this devcontainer (default: default). Use this to run multiple instances of the same devcontainer configuration.
--attach
Attach to the container after starting it. This immediately opens an interactive shell in the container.

Examples​

# Start a devcontainer
atmos devcontainer start geodesic

# Start and immediately attach
atmos devcontainer start geodesic --attach

# Start a specific instance
atmos devcontainer start terraform --instance project-a

# Start with custom runtime (via environment variable)
export ATMOS_CONTAINER_RUNTIME=podman
atmos devcontainer start geodesic

Behavior​

  1. Container doesn't exist: Creates a new container with the configured image, mounts, ports, and environment variables, then starts it
  2. Container exists but stopped: Starts the existing container
  3. Container already running: Reports that the container is already running

The container name follows the pattern: atmos-devcontainer-<name>-<instance>

Try it out​

Copy the example into a new directory and make it your own:

atmos init examples/devcontainer
cd devcontainer

Requires a running Podman runtime (the example selects Podman) and network access for the image. The final commands clean up the local container.

atmos devcontainer start geodesic
atmos devcontainer stop geodesic
atmos devcontainer remove geodesic
Explore the example →Initialization and repository settings

See Also​