Introduce devcontainer service container based development environment (#705)

[bedrich-schindler]

All development is now done inside the container named devcontainer which contains all necessary tools and dependencies. The devcontainer orchestrates other service containers behind the scenes via Docker-from-Docker. Other containers are implementation details and should not be accessed directly.

This is breaking change commit for development environment, so it is required to remove all the env files and start with fresh one.

There are two supported ways to access the development environment. Recommended way is to use Development Containers with an IDE. The alternative is to use Docker Compose directly. Local development is officially no more supported.

What more, documentation of contribution and CLAUDE.md was updated to match with the changes.

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Closes #705

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

This PR migrates the repo’s development workflow to a single devcontainer-centric environment that orchestrates supporting service containers via Docker-from-Docker, updating scripts, Compose files, and contributor docs accordingly.

Changes:

• Add a devcontainer image (with wrapper CLIs) and new Compose layout (docker-compose.base.yml + generated docker-compose.yml).
• Introduce setup.sh + docker/build-docker-images.sh to generate config files and build images.
• Consolidate Playwright configuration into .env and update contribution/testing documentation.

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 16 out of 25 changed files in this pull request and generated 12 comments.

Show a summary per file

File	Description
tests/playwright/env/parseDotEnvFile.ts	Switch Playwright env parsing from .env.playwright to .env.
src/docs/contribute/testing-guidelines.md	Update test-running guidance for the new container-agnostic workflow.
src/docs/contribute/general-guidelines.md	Rewrite development environment docs around the devcontainer model.
setup.sh	New host-side setup script to generate .env and docker-compose.yml and build images.
package.json	Remove postinstall env-file bootstrap.
docker/react_ui_devcontainer_local/Dockerfile.dist	Add template for locally extending the devcontainer image.
docker/react_ui_devcontainer/files/usr/local/bin/*	Add wrapper scripts (npm/node/npx/mkdocs + AI tool shims) to route commands into service containers.
docker/react_ui_devcontainer/files/usr/local/bin/docker-entrypoint	Add entrypoint that runs fixuid and home ownership setup.
docker/react_ui_devcontainer/files/home/developer/shell-init.sh	Add SSH-agent forwarding blocking helper.
docker/react_ui_devcontainer/Dockerfile	Add new devcontainer image build.
docker/build-docker-images.sh	Add helper to build the devcontainer image and compose services.
docker-compose.yml.dist	Add dist template for generated docker-compose.yml.
docker-compose.yml	Remove old compose file (now generated).
docker-compose.base.yml	Add new base compose defining devcontainer + node/playwright/docs services.
CLAUDE.md	Update assistant guidance to assume devcontainer usage.
.gitignore	Ignore generated compose + local devcontainer customization dir; stop ignoring .env.playwright.
.env.playwright.dist	Remove dedicated Playwright env template.
.env.dist	Expand .env.dist to include compose/devcontainer + Playwright settings.
.devcontainer/devcontainer.json	Add Dev Container configuration to bootstrap via setup.sh.

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[Copilot]

Pull request overview

Copilot reviewed 16 out of 25 changed files in this pull request and generated 4 comments.

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[github-actions]

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2026-06-09 07:48 UTC

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

Copilot reviewed 16 out of 25 changed files in this pull request and generated 6 comments.

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[adamkudrna]

I have a lot of comments, but I really like it! You have done a great job 👏🏻.

[adamkudrna]

Here are a few points by Claude. I believe they are relevant.

(Once you rebase the branch, we can try asking Claude to do CR right here, just by adding the claude label.)

[bedrich-schindler]

@claude make code review.

[mbohal]

I did not test it extensively,nor did I do very throughout CR. I do not have that much time now.

However it works on my machine and I saw nothing I would not feel comfortable merging. So here goes the ✔️

[adamkudrna]

You have done a great job @bedrich-schindler 👏🏻.

• Docs are clear and understandable.
• I tested the default mode and auto-start mode, both OK.
• I successfully started Claude (but stopped before logging in).
• I did not test any customization features.
• Only issue I have observed so far is the missing Git intergration in my Jetbrains.

Can't wait to start using it!