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!