devcontainers / devcontainers/spec
🚀 Feature Request: Support extension version pinning in devcontainer.json
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Description
### Problem
Currently, when defining extensions in `devcontainer.json`:
```json
{
"customizations": {
"vscode": {
"extensions": [
"ms-dotnettools.csharp"
]
}
}
}
```
The latest version of the extension is always installed.
This creates issues in team environments because:
* Extension updates can introduce breaking changes
* Developers may end up with inconsistent environments
* Builds and development workflows become less predictable
---
### Proposed Solution
Allow specifying a version when declaring extensions, for example:
```json
{
"customizations": {
"vscode": {
"extensions": [
"ms-dotnettools.csharp@1.25.0"
]
}
}
}
```
---
### Alternative Syntax (optional)
Another possible approach could be:
```json
{
"customizations": {
"vscode": {
"extensions": [
{
"id": "ms-dotnettools.csharp",
"version": "1.25.0"
}
]
}
}
}
```
---
### Benefits
* Reproducible development environments
* Better stability for teams and CI/CD workflows
* Alignment with other ecosystems (e.g., npm, pip, Docker image tags)
* Eliminates need for manual `.vsix` workarounds
---
### Current Workarounds
* Manually downloading `.vsix` files and installing them via scripts
* Using `postCreateCommand` to install specific versions (not always reliable)
* Maintaining custom Docker images with pre-installed extensions
These approaches add complexity and reduce maintainability.
---
### Additional Context
This feature would significantly improve Dev Container usability in professional environments, especially for teams working with strict version control and reproducibility requirements.
---
### Thank you 🙏
Thanks for the amazing work on Dev Containers! This feature would make it even more powerful for team-based development.
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Assessment
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