Container use: Development environments for coding agents.

container-use

Containerized environments for coding agents. (📦🤖) (📦🤖) (📦🤖)

Experimental Discord Mentioned in Awesome Claude Code

Container Use lets coding agents do their work in parallel environments without getting in your way. Go from babysitting one agent at a time to enabling multiple agents to work safely and independently with your preferred stack. See the full documentation.

container-use demo

It's an open-source MCP server that works as a CLI tool with Claude Code, Cursor, and other MCP-compatible agents. Powered by Dagger.

  • 📦 Isolated Environments: Each agent gets a fresh container in its own git branch - run multiple agents without conflicts, experiment safely, discard failures instantly.
  • 👀 Real-time Visibility: See complete command history and logs of what agents actually did, not just what they claim.
  • 🚁 Direct Intervention: Drop into any agent's terminal to see their state and take control when they get stuck.
  • 🎮 Environment Control: Standard git workflow - just git checkout <branch_name> to review any agent's work.
  • 🌎 Universal Compatibility: Works with any agent, model, or infrastructure - no vendor lock-in.

🦺 This project is in early development and actively evolving. Submit issues and/or reach out to us on Discord in the #container-use channel.


Quick Start

Install

# macOS (recommended)
brew install dagger/tap/container-use

# All platforms
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dagger/container-use/main/install.sh | bash

Setup with Your Agent

Container Use works with any MCP-compatible agent. The setup is always the same: add container-use stdio as an MCP server.

👉 Complete setup guide for all agents (Cursor, Goose, VSCode, etc.)

Example with Claude Code:

# Add Container Use MCP server
cd /path/to/repository
claude mcp add container-use -- container-use stdio

# Add agent rules (optional)
curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dagger/container-use/main/rules/agent.md >> CLAUDE.md
💡 Command Shortcut

The container-use command is also available as cu for convenience. Both commands work identically:

  • container-use stdio (used in documentation)
  • cu stdio (shortcut)

Try It

Ask your agent to create something:

Create a hello world app in python using flask

Your agent will work in an isolated environment and give you URLs to view the app and explore the code!