Build a Portable Developer Desktop with Docker (VS Code + Codex CLI + Tailscale + RDP)

Setting up a fresh development machine should not take half a day.

This project gives you a portable “developer desktop in a container” with:

LinuxServer Webtop (Ubuntu XFCE)
VS Code CLI
OpenAI Codex CLI
Tailscale daemon auto-start
XRDP for RDP/Guacamole clients
Pluggable installer scripts so you can extend the image your way

Repo: https://github.com/jcianci12/developer-webtop-docker-vm

Why this setup is useful

If you juggle multiple machines, client environments, or short-lived projects, this pattern is a big win:

Reproducible: rebuild the same environment consistently
Fast recovery: persistent config is stored in ./data
Easy sharing: publish-safe template with no real secrets committed
Remote-ready: connect over RDP or through Tailscale

What is in the stack

The Compose service builds a local image (dev-webtop:local) and runs a Webtop desktop container.

Key details:

Selected installers run at image build time for deterministic startup
Container publishes RDP on host 3389:3389
./data is mounted to /config for persistence
Custom init hooks start tailscaled and xrdp automatically

Quick start

Clone and configure:

git clone https://github.com/jcianci12/developer-webtop-docker-vm.git
cd developer-webtop-docker-vm
cp .env.example .env

Edit .env and set:

RDP_PASSWORD to a strong value
TZ to your timezone
INSTALL_SCRIPTS to the installers you want

Build and run:

docker compose up -d --build

Verify tools:

docker exec dev-webtop sh -lc "code --version | sed -n '1p'; codex --version; tailscale status || true"

First-time Tailscale auth (inside container terminal):

tailscale up

RDP and Guacamole

RDP is available on host port 3389.

Host: 127.0.0.1 (or your Docker host IP)
Port: 3389
Username: ${RDP_USER}
Password: ${RDP_PASSWORD}

If Guacamole runs on the same Docker network, point it at:

Host: dev-webtop
Port: 3389

If it is on a different network:

docker network connect <network-name> dev-webtop

Customize with installer scripts

The best part of this template is extensibility.

Add your own scripts in installers/, then include them in INSTALL_SCRIPTS.

Example:

chmod +x installers/python-tools.sh

Then in .env:

INSTALL_SCRIPTS=core-tools,tailscale,rdp,python-tools

Rebuild:

docker compose up -d --build

Notes from real usage

curl against localhost:3389 will fail with HTTP reset, which is expected because 3389 is RDP, not HTTP.
Tailscale may show “Logged out” until tailscale up is completed.
Desktop/container warnings around DBus components are common in containerized desktop environments and are often non-fatal.

Who this is for

DevOps and platform engineers who need repeatable dev workspaces
Consultants managing many client contexts
Teams needing a “known-good” remote desktop baseline
Homelab users building secure remote dev access

Final thoughts

You can treat this repo as:

A daily driver remote dev box
A template for team onboarding
A base image for your own toolchain installers

If this saves you time, star the repo and share your installer combos:

https://github.com/jcianci12/developer-webtop-docker-vm
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Recent commits:

readme update, jon cianci
first commit, jon cianci