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Parv Ruhil
Parv Ruhil

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DevBoxOS v1.0.2: One Command to Rule Your Entire Dev Environment

#devtools #docker #go #opensource

DevBoxOS v1.0.2 — One Command to Rule Your Entire Dev Environment

We've all been there. You clone a repo, and the README says:

"Start the database, then start Redis, then run the migration script, then start the API, then start the frontend. See .env.example."

An hour later you're still debugging why port 5432 is already in use.

DevBoxOS fixes this. One config file. One command.

What is DevBoxOS?

DevBoxOS is a local-first development environment manager. You describe your entire stack in a devbox.yml file, and DevBoxOS handles everything else — starting services in dependency order, waiting for health checks, managing secrets securely, and letting you snapshot your entire environment.

devboxos start
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That's it.

The Config File

A minimal devbox.yml looks like this:

name: my-project
services:
  web:
    image: nginx:latest
    ports:
      - "8080:80"
  postgres:
    image: postgres:16-alpine
    env:
      - POSTGRES_DB=myapp
      - POSTGRES_PASSWORD=${secrets.DB_PASSWORD}
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD", "pg_isready", "-U", "postgres"]
      interval: 10s
  api:
    image: myapp-api:latest
    depends_on:
      - postgres
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DevBoxOS reads the depends_on relationships, starts postgres first, waits for its health check to pass, then starts the API.

Features Worth Highlighting

🔒 Encrypted Secrets

No more secrets in .env files. DevBoxOS uses age encryption (X25519 + ChaCha20-Poly1305):

devboxos secrets set DATABASE_URL "postgres://user:pass@db:5432/myapp"
devboxos secrets get DATABASE_URL --reveal
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Secrets are stored in .devbox/secrets.enc — you can safely commit this to your repo.

📸 Environment Snapshots

This is huge for teams. Save your entire environment state — containers, volumes, networks — and share it:

devboxos snapshot save pre-migration
devboxos snapshot export abc12345 ./snapshot.tar
# teammate runs:
devboxos snapshot import ./snapshot.tar
devboxos snapshot load abc12345
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No more "can you send me a copy of your database?"

🩺 Diagnostics 

devboxos doctor
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Runs checks for: Docker daemon access, disk space, memory, config validity, secrets integrity, port conflicts, circular dependencies, orphaned containers.

📊 Resource Monitoring 

devboxos top
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Real-time CPU/memory dashboard for all running services. Refreshes every 2 seconds by default.

🔄 Hot Reload 

devboxos start --watch
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Watches your files and auto-restarts services on changes.

Architecture

DevBoxOS is two binaries:

  • devboxos — the CLI (cobra-based)
  • devbox-engine — a gRPC daemon that manages container lifecycle

The CLI talks to the engine over gRPC (:51000). If the engine isn't running, most commands fall back directly to the Docker SDK — so you're never fully blocked.

It's written entirely in Go (98.7% of the codebase) and is cross-platform: Linux, macOS, and Windows.

vs Docker Compose

Feature DevBoxOS Docker Compose
Snapshots ✅ Native ❌
Encrypted secrets ✅ age-encrypted ❌ Plain env files
Diagnostics ✅ Comprehensive ❌
Resource monitoring ✅ Built-in ❌
Plugin system ✅ Hook-based ❌
Config complexity Low Medium

DevBoxOS can also import/export Docker Compose files:

devboxos init compose-import   # docker-compose.yml → devbox.yml
devboxos init compose-export   # devbox.yml → docker-compose.yml
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Install

Linux/macOS:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/parv68/DevBoxOS/main/scripts/install.sh | sh
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Windows (PowerShell):

irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/parv68/DevBoxOS/main/scripts/install.ps1 | iex
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Build from source (Go 1.25+):

git clone https://github.com/parv68/DevBoxOS.git
cd DevBoxOS
go build -o devboxos ./cli
go build -o devbox-engine ./engine/cmd
sudo mv devboxos devbox-engine /usr/local/bin/
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Quick Start 

# 1. Start the engine daemon
devbox-engine &

# 2. Go to your project and auto-detect config
cd my-project
devboxos init

# 3. Validate
devboxos validate

# 4. Start everything
devboxos start

# 5. Check status
devboxos status
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Wrapping Up

DevBoxOS v1.0.2 is the first stable release. It's MIT licensed, fully open source, and contributions are very welcome.

If you work with multi-service setups daily, give it a try and let me know what breaks. That's exactly the kind of feedback that helps an early-stage open-source project grow.

⭐ GitHub: https://github.com/parv68/DevBoxOS

Built with ❤️ for developers who want their dev environment to just work.

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