GitHub Development Environment (github-dev)

GitHub Development Environment (github-dev)

Installs the GitHub CLI (gh) and adds the essential GitHub VS Code extensions (Copilot Chat, Pull Requests & Issues, GitHub Actions, RemoteHub). Automatically authenticates gh if a token is available in the environment.

Usage

{
    "features": {
        "ghcr.io/helpers4/devcontainer/github-dev:1": {}
    }
}

Combine with essential-dev for a complete development environment:

{
    "features": {
        "ghcr.io/helpers4/devcontainer/essential-dev:1": {},
        "ghcr.io/helpers4/devcontainer/github-dev:1": {}
    }
}

Options

Option	Type	Default	Description
ghVersion	string	latest	GitHub CLI version to install (e.g. 2.50.0 or latest)

What Gets Installed

GitHub CLI (gh)

Installed from GitHub Releases. Supports x86_64, aarch64, and armv7l.

Common uses inside the devcontainer:

gh auth status              # Check authentication
gh pr list                  # List open PRs
gh pr create                # Create a PR from current branch
gh pr checkout 123          # Check out a PR locally
gh issue list               # List issues
gh run list                 # List workflow runs
gh run watch                # Watch a running workflow
gh release create v1.0.0    # Create a release
gh repo clone org/repo      # Clone a repository

VS Code Extensions

Extension	Purpose
github.copilot-chat	AI chat assistant and code completions (replaces the deprecated github.copilot extension)
github.vscode-pull-request-github	PR and issue management inside VS Code
github.vscode-github-actions	GitHub Actions workflow editor with validation
github.remotehub	Browse remote GitHub repositories without cloning
ms-vscode.remote-repositories	Open and work on remote repositories without cloning (companion to RemoteHub)

Copilot Chat commit-message guidance

This feature ships a shared Copilot Chat commit-message instruction for the helpers4 organization (Conventional Commits + gitmoji). It is injected via github.copilot.chat.commitMessageGeneration.instructions.

The instruction does not hardcode the list of allowed scopes — instead, it tells Copilot Chat to look up the workspace setting conventionalCommits.scopes defined in each repo’s .vscode/settings.json. This keeps a single source of truth per repo (used by both the Conventional Commits extension UI and the AI commit-message generator).

Copilot Chat pull-request title & description guidance

This feature also ships a shared instruction for PR titles and descriptions via github.copilot.chat.pullRequestDescriptionGeneration.instructions:

• The PR title follows the same Conventional Commits + gitmoji format as commit messages, and reads its scope list from the same conventionalCommits.scopes workspace setting.
• The PR body is repo-agnostic: Copilot looks for the active repository’s own template (.github/PULL_REQUEST_TEMPLATE.md, pull_request_template.md, files under .github/PULL_REQUEST_TEMPLATE/, etc.) and reproduces its sections, headings, and checkbox labels verbatim — ticking checkboxes based on the diff. If the workspace also bundles an org-level .github repo as a sibling folder, that template is used as a fallback. If no template is found anywhere, a minimal default structure (Description / Changes / How Has This Been Tested? / Related Issues) is used.

This means external users adopting this feature get the format guarantees without having to adopt helpers4’s specific template.

Override or disable

Both commitMessageGeneration.instructions and pullRequestDescriptionGeneration.instructions are array settings — VS Code merges entries from User, Workspace, and feature-injected sources. To override, add your own entry in your User or Workspace settings; to disable a helpers4 default, set the corresponding array explicitly to [] in your settings (this clears feature-injected items).

Authentication

Auto-auth via token (recommended)

Set GH_TOKEN (or GITHUB_TOKEN) in your environment and gh will authenticate automatically on shell startup — no manual gh auth login needed.

Local / DevPod: add to your devcontainer.json:

{
    "remoteEnv": {
        "GH_TOKEN": "${localEnv:GH_TOKEN}"
    }
}

Then set GH_TOKEN on your host machine (export GH_TOKEN=ghp_... in your shell profile).

GitHub Codespaces: GITHUB_TOKEN is injected automatically — gh is authenticated with no extra configuration.

CI/CD: set GH_TOKEN as a repository or organization secret.

SSH

Use dotfiles-sync to bring your SSH keys into the container.

Manual

gh auth login

Version History

• v1.0.3: Add shared Copilot Chat pull-request title & description instruction. PR titles follow the same Conventional Commits + gitmoji format as commits; PR bodies follow the active repository’s own PR template when available (with sibling org .github repo as fallback), and gracefully fall back to a minimal default otherwise — repo-agnostic, no helpers4-specific assumptions.
• v1.0.2: Add shared Copilot Chat commit-message instruction (Conventional Commits + gitmoji) for the helpers4 org. The instruction references each repo’s conventionalCommits.scopes workspace setting instead of hardcoding scopes, removing duplication across the 6 helpers4 repos.
• v1.0.1: Remove deprecated github.copilot extension (superseded by github.copilot-chat). Add ms-vscode.remote-repositories (companion to RemoteHub).
• v1.0.0: Initial release. gh CLI, Copilot, Copilot Chat, Pull Requests & Issues, GitHub Actions, RemoteHub extensions. Auto-auth via GH_TOKEN/GITHUB_TOKEN. Extracted from essential-dev.