dev-container

name	dev-container
description	Sets up and manages the isaaclab_arena Docker container — the single environment used for Arena's development, testing, training, and evaluation. Use when the user asks to set up the dev environment, bootstrap the project, get started on a fresh clone, start developing, build or rebuild the image, start or attach to the container, or run any command inside it. Also covers ./docker/run_docker.sh flag combinations (-r rebuild, -R rebuild without cache, -d/-m/-e custom dataset/model/eval mounts), docker exec usage, and the /isaac-sim/python.sh aliasing.
allowed-tools	Bash(./docker/run_docker.sh *) Bash(docker exec *) Bash(docker images *) Bash(docker ps *)

Dev Container

Arena uses a single Docker container as the dev, test, training, and eval environment. There is no separate dev container.

Each clone of the repo on the host machine gets its own container, so separate clones can run in parallel. The image (isaaclab_arena:latest) is shared, but the container name is isaaclab_arena-latest for the folder named IsaacLab-Arena and isaaclab_arena-latest-<suffix> for folders named IsaacLab-Arena_<suffix> (run_docker.sh derives the suffix automatically).

Discover this clone's container (once per session)

Never hardcode the name. At the start of a session, resolve the container mounting this clone into ARENA_CONTAINER (empty result = none running, so start one below):

ARENA_CONTAINER=$(docker ps --filter "volume=$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel)" --format '{{.Names}}' | head -1)

Run the commands below in that same shell so $ARENA_CONTAINER stays set (or substitute the literal name).

Start or attach

./docker/run_docker.sh

Idempotent: builds the (shared) image if it does not exist, starts this clone's container if it is not running, then attaches. The container name is auto-derived from the clone directory; pass -s <suffix> to override it.

Common flag combinations

Flag	Purpose
-r	Force image rebuild
-R	Force image rebuild without cache
-d <path>	Mount a custom dataset directory
-m <path>	Mount a custom model directory
-e <path>	Mount a custom eval directory

Example with custom mounts:

./docker/run_docker.sh -d ~/datasets -m ~/models -e ~/eval

Run a command in the already-running container

docker exec "$ARENA_CONTAINER" su $(id -un) -c \
  "cd /workspaces/isaaclab_arena && <command>"

The repo root is mounted at /workspaces/isaaclab_arena inside the container.

Python invocation

Inside the container, python is aliased to /isaac-sim/python.sh. Both forms work, but prefer /isaac-sim/python.sh explicitly in docker exec invocations from outside the container, where the alias is not active.

Verify

A container is up and importable when:

docker exec "$ARENA_CONTAINER" su $(id -un) -c \
  "/isaac-sim/python.sh -c 'import isaaclab_arena; print(isaaclab_arena.__file__)'"

prints a path under /workspaces/isaaclab_arena/.