Builders

Builders are responsible for creating a container image with the necessary tools and configurations for your Project. Daytona provides control over how the resulting Project environment is created, allowing you to choose your preferred method to build the Project image.

You can choose between the following Builders while creating a Workspace:

• Automatic

  Daytona builds the Project image after auto-detecting the most appropriate Builder.

• Dev Container

  Daytona builds the Project image according to the Dev Container configuration located in the project.

• Custom Image

  Daytona builds the Project image using an image you specify.

• None

  Daytona creates the Project using the default base image.

Automatic

Daytona can auto-detect the most appropriate Builder for your Project. Daytona uses the following logic to determine which Builder to use:

1. Check if a Dev Container configuration is present in .devcontainer.json or .devcontainer/devcontainer.json, relative to the repository root.
2. If present, use the Dev Container Builder. If not present, use the None Builder.

To use the Automatic Builder, set the --builder flag value to auto during the Workspace creation. This flag only applies when creating Workspaces with a single Project.

daytona create <REPO_URL> --builder=auto

Dev Container

Development Containers (Dev Containers) provide a consistent and fully featured development environments for your Projects. A Dev Container defines all the necessary tools, runtime, and environment configurations required to build and run your Projects.

The Dev Container specification is designed to define a development environment that can be replicated across different platforms and CI/CD systems. The specification is defined within a devcontainer.json file in the project repository.

The devcontainer.json file is a JSON file that consists of components that define the development environment. The file includes objects with properties containing metadata and settings required to configurate a development container. View the dev container specification for more information.

Use devcontainer.ai to generate a devcontainer.json file for your Project.

Example devcontainer.json file:

{
    "name": "Example Python & PostgreSQL Dev Container",
    "build": {
        "dockerfile": "Dockerfile",
        "args": {
            "VARIANT": "3.8",
            "INSTALL_NODE": "false"
        }
    },
    "settings": {
        "terminal.integrated.shell.linux": "/bin/bash"
    },
    "extensions": [
        "ms-python.python",
        "ms-azuretools.vscode-docker"
    ],
    "postCreateCommand": "pip install -r requirements.txt",
    "remoteUser": "vscode"
}

• name: The name of the development container.
• build: The build configuration for the development container.
• settings: The settings for the development container.
• extensions: The extensions to install in the development container.
• postCreateCommand: The command to run after creating the development container.
• remoteUser: The user to execute commands as during the image build process.

Daytona provides the option to build the Project image using the Dev Container standard. Use the following option available when using the Dev Container Builder:

• Devcontainer file path

  The path where the Dev Container configuration is located, relative to the repository root. The default value is .devcontainer/devcontainer.json.

To use the Dev Container Builder, set the --devcontainer-path flag to the Dev Container configuration path within the repository during the Workspace creation. This flag only applies when creating Workspaces with a single Project.

daytona create <REPO_URL> --devcontainer-path=.devcontainer/devcontainer.json

Custom Image

You can build the Project image by specifying a custom base container. The following options are accepted when using this Builder:

• Custom container image

  The name of the base container image for the Project.

• Container user

  The user to execute commands as during the image build process.

• Environment variables

  A list of environment variables in the format KEY=VALUE.

To use the Custom Image Builder, set both --custom-image and --custom-image-user flags while creating a Workspace. These flags only apply when creating Workspaces with a single Project.

daytona create <REPO_URL> --custom-image=daytona-workspace:latest --custom-image-user=daytona

None

Daytona can build a Project using the default base image.

Unless otherwise configured using daytona server configure, the default base image is set to daytonaio/workspace-project.

Custom Build Registry

You can set a custom build registry for images built by a Daytona Builder. After an image is built, it will be uploaded to the configured container registry to speed up future Workspace creation for the same Project.

Prerequisite

• An account on an accessible container registry with permission to push/pull images.

1. Execute the following command to configure the custom build registry:

daytona container-registry set

2. Set the required options:

• Server URL

  The full URL to your custom container registry.

• Username

  The username Daytona should use to log in to the container registry.

• Password

  The password for your container registry account.

3. Press Enter to set the custom build registry.
4. Execute the following command to configure the server:

daytona server configure

5. Press Enter until the “Builder Registry” section is highlighted.

Builder Registry
To add options, add a container registry with 'daytona cr set'
> Local registry managed by Daytona

6. Select the custom registry configured previously using ↑ / ↓ arrow keys.
7. Press Enter until the command exits to save the configuration.