Shell-Cell

Lightweight CLI tool that turns simple YAML blueprints into instant, isolated, and reproducible containerized development shell sessions.

[!WARNING] Under heavy development, backwards compatibility is not guaranteed, and future versions may introduce breaking changes.

💡 How It Works

Shell-Cell reads a scell.yml blueprint, compiles it into a image, and launches a persistent container that acts as a "shell server". You can then attach interactive shell sessions to this warm, ready-to-use environment.

🚀 Quick Start

Prerequisites

A running Docker (or Podman) daemon is required.

Install

• Build for Unix

curl -fsSL https://github.com/Mr-Leshiy/shell-cell/releases/latest/download/shell-cell-installer.sh | sh

• Build from source (any platform)

  Prerequisites: Go 1.24+ — the Go toolchain is required.

cargo install shell-cell --locked

For socket configuration and other setup details, see the Install and Configure guide.

Create a Blueprint

Run scell init to generate a minimal scell.yml in your project directory:

scell init

Or write one by hand (see the full Blueprint Reference for all available instructions):

main:
  from_image: debian:bookworm
  workspace: /app
  shell: /bin/bash
  hang: while true; do sleep 3600; done

Launch a Session

scell

That's it! Shell-Cell will find the scell.yml in your current directory, build the environment, and drop you into an interactive shell. For more CLI options and usage patterns, see the CLI Reference.

👨🏻‍👩🏻‍👦🏻‍👦🏻 Community

Our Discord server https://discord.gg/URTBEuU5

🎓 Want to know more ?

Follow the detailed documentation about how Shell-Cell works and how to use it:

👉 Docs

➡️ Whats next?

Want to see what we’re working on? Check out our journey here:

👉 Roadmap

❤️ Contributing & Feedback

If you run into a bug or have a "what if" idea, don't be a stranger — open an issue, start a discussion or make a pull-request!