Developing Dapr applications with remote dev containers

The Visual Studio Code Remote Containers extension lets you use a Docker container as a full-featured development environment without installing any additional frameworks or packages to your local filesystem.

Dapr has pre-built Docker remote containers for NodeJS and C#. You can pick the one of your choice for a ready made environment. Note these pre-built containers automatically update to the latest Dapr release.

Setup a remote dev container

Prerequisites

• Docker Desktop

• Visual Studio Code
• VSCode Remote Development extension pack

Create remote Dapr container

1. Open your application workspace in VS Code
2. In the command command palette (CTRL+SHIFT+P) type and select Remote-Containers: Add Development Container Configuration Files...
   
3. Type dapr to filter the list to available Dapr remote containers and choose the language container that matches your application. Note you may need to select Show All Definitions...
   
4. Follow the prompts to rebuild your application in container.
   

Example

Watch this video on how to use the Dapr VS Code Remote Containers with your application.