How I got out of dependency hell with Docker (SpiderFoot OSINT lab)

Musa Nayyer — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 20:47:23 +0000

I wanted to try SpiderFoot – an OSINT tool. Thought it would be a simple pip install.

Nope.

It crashed on lxml. Something about headers and versions. Classic dependency hell on Arch.

I didn't want to mess up my main system. So I gave up on virtual environments and used Docker instead.

Here's what worked.
Set this up so you don't need sudo for every command.

1. Docker permissions

sudo usermod -aG docker $USER
newgrp docker
sudo systemctl restart docker

2. Clone and build

Grab the source and build the image locally.

git clone https://github.com/smicallef/spiderfoot.git
cd spiderfoot
docker build -t spiderfoot .

3. Run it (the easy way)

I used the VS Code Docker extension. Built the image, then ran the container from the UI. The extension shows all running containers on my system, so I could start/stop it with one click.

If you prefer the command line, this works too:

docker run -d -p 5001:5001 --name spiderfoot-app spiderfoot
Either way, open http://localhost:5001 and SpiderFoot is there.

Why I'm doing this
I'm a beginner in cybersecurity. I don't want to install random tools directly on my laptop. With Docker, I can try anything and delete it later without breaking stuff.

This worked for me. Might work for you too.

DEV Community: Musa Nayyer

How I got out of dependency hell with Docker (SpiderFoot OSINT lab)

1. Docker permissions

2. Clone and build

3. Run it (the easy way)