Devcontainer improvement

[navidpadid]

Issue: closes #1765

• issue was opened to discuss proposed changes before starting implementation.
• during development, node version specified in package.json was used.
• package versions and package-lock.json were not changed.
• app version number was not changed.
• all new code has tests to ensure against regressions.
• npm run lint reports no offenses.
• npm run test is error-free.
• README and CHANGELOG were updated accordingly.

Description of the Change

Adds a VS Code Dev Container so contributors can get a fully working development environment in one click, without manually installing Electron runtime libraries or native build dependencies on their host machine.

.devcontainer/Dockerfile

• Based on mcr.microsoft.com/devcontainers/javascript-node:1-22-bookworm
• Installs all Electron runtime libraries needed for the app and tests (libasound2, libatk-bridge2.0-0, libgbm1, libgtk-3-0, libnss3, libxshmfence1, xvfb)
• Includes libinput-dev and libudev-dev which are required by node-desktop-idle-v2 to compile its native binding via node-gyp — without these, npm install fails with gyp ERR! configure error

.devcontainer/devcontainer.json

• Runs npm install automatically on container creation, including a find-based chmod u+x pass on .bin/ symlink targets to fix a missing execute bit on cross-env (shipped without it in the npm tarball), which otherwise causes npm run lint to fail with Permission denied
• Mounts SSH agent, ~/.ssh, ~/.gitconfig, and ~/.npmrc read-only from the host so Git over SSH and npm auth work without copying credentials into the container
• Forwards port 9222 for remote debugging with npm run dev
• Pre-installs the ESLint and Vitest VS Code extensions and configures ESLint to auto-fix on save

README.md

• Adds a Dev Container section under the contributing guide explaining prerequisites and usage

Verification Process

Opened the repository in the dev container from scratch and verified:

• npm install completes without errors (native modules node-desktop-idle-v2 and windows-focus-assist build successfully)
• npm run lint — no offenses
• npm test — 315/315 tests pass
• npm run pack -- --linux — produces a valid dist/linux-unpacked/stretchly binary

Other information

The node_modules directory is kept in a named Docker volume (stretchly-node-modules) to avoid re-downloading packages on every container rebuild.

[navidpadid]

@hovancik please let me know if there's anything I missed or you have any suggestions. I have tested the setup on Ubuntu and MacOS with Docker. Don't have windows machine to test with WSL, but I believe it should work just fine.

[codecov]

Codecov Report

✅ All modified and coverable lines are covered by tests.
✅ Project coverage is 67.39%. Comparing base (5372a0c) to head (a7b6966).
⚠️ Report is 10 commits behind head on trunk.

Additional details and impacted files

@@            Coverage Diff             @@
##            trunk    #1766      +/-   ##
==========================================
- Coverage   68.21%   67.39%   -0.83%     
==========================================
  Files          15       16       +1     
  Lines         494      506      +12     
==========================================
+ Hits          337      341       +4     
- Misses        157      165       +8     

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[hovancik]

Hi @navidpadid, how does this work? I am not familiar with devcontainer that much.

The app runs then normally? I mean with this being docker and Stretchly being UI app?

Thanks

[navidpadid]

Hi @navidpadid, how does this work? I am not familiar with devcontainer that much.

The app runs then normally? I mean with this being docker and Stretchly being UI app?

Thanks

Hi @hovancik , yes it would be running normally by doing port forwarding. I have added the commands for simplicity to the files. In short, the npm run dev:devcontainer would do the trick. I added another command for your testing.

Here is a screenshot of testing command:

Would you also try to follow the readme and do your tests (UI tests) to confirm if everything works? I have tested this on Linux machine. There could be spots I may have missed.

Thanks.

[hovancik]

Hey, I am quite busy, will have to find time to review/try later

[hovancik]

could we make it use .nvmrc version? so I don't have to remember update this. Each Electron version is with specific node version so best to keep it in sync.

[hovancik]

--remote-allow-origins=* is broad; --remote-allow-origins=http://localhost:9223 would be safer?

[hovancik]

also, is there reason to use 9223?

[hovancik]

What's this doing?