How to Set a Custom Docker Container Name in a Dev Container

How to Set a Custom Docker Container Name in a Dev Container If you've ever used Dev Containers in VS Code, you've probably noticed that your container ends up with a random generated name like upbeat_heyrovsky or zealous_bookworm — even after setting the "name" field in your devcontainer.json . That's because "name" is just the display name in VS Code. It has nothing to do with the actual Docker container name. Before — random generated name: The Problem When your devcontainer.json uses a single image (no Docker Compose), there's no obvious way to control the container name: { "name" : "my_project" , // ← this is just a VS Code label "image" : "mcr.microsoft.com/devcontainers/typescript-node:3-24" } VS Code will still spin up a container with a random Docker name. Tools like OrbStack or Docker Desktop will show something completely unrelated to your project. The Fix Use runArgs to pass Docker run arguments directly: { "name" : "my_project" , "image" : "mcr.microsoft.com/devcontainers/