TL;DR: Built a modular Dockerfile system that lets you compose dev/prod containers using build arguments instead of writing custom Dockerfiles. Includes 28 feature modules with 100+ tools, weekly automated version updates with testing, and support for Python/Node/Rust/Go/Kubernetes and more. Saves me between a few hours and a day or two per project setup in addition to a lot of downstream effort with updates and coordinating environments.
The Problem That Wouldn't Go Away
You know that feeling when you're starting a new project and you think "oh great, I get to set up devcontainer again"? That was me, every single time. Another day lost to writing yet another Dockerfile, configuring Python, Node, databases, cloud tools, dev tools... rinse and repeat.
After several projects, I realized something depressing: I was literally copying and pasting the same 300 lines of Dockerfile with minor tweaks. The only thing changing was whether I needed Python 3.12 or 3.13, or if this project used Postgres or MySQL.
But the real pain hit when maintenance season arrived. Python releases a security patch? Great, now I get to update six different repos. New team security practice? Update six Dockerfiles. New teammate starts a project? They copy the Dockerfile from the last project (which was already out of date), and now we have seven slightly different configurations.
