I want to be able to use a VS Code devcontainer with Adobe ColdFusion Builder extension (and share that container with others). I don't want to have to do any manual setup if I have a properly set up devcontainer.

I worked for quite some time to try to create a devcontainer setup that would:

1. Allow me to use code completion and linting
2. Allow me to use linting
3. Allow me to use the Security Analyzer.

The first two are easy. You need a specific environment, but you don’t need to set up a server or a project. The Security Analyzer appears to require:
 

1. A specific environment
2. A server
3. RDS, with an account.
4. A project. Setting up a project within a devcontainer is deeply unpleasant. You have container within a container, and it appears to require you to use a VS Code project, as well as the extension’s own project files. I tend to avoid using VS Code Workspaces with devcontainers in general, because I run into conflicts between the two.

I got a far as the setup below. With this and a bunch of manual setup, I think I could possibly arrive at an environment where the Security Analyzer would work, but it would be a lot of labor, and very finicky. 

I want something I can hand off to another developer, and the only thing I have to explain is how to build a devcontainer.
 

.devcontainers/devcontainer.json:

{
  "name": "${localWorkspaceFolderBasename} ColdFusion workspace",
  "dockerComposeFile": "docker-compose.yml",
  "service": "cfml-with-db",
  "workspaceFolder": "/app",
  "customizations": {
    "vscode": {
      "extensions": [
        "com-adobe-coldfusion.adobe-cfml-lsp"
      ],
      "settings": {
        "files.associations": {
          "*.cfm": "cfml",
          "*.cfc": "cfml"
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

.devcontainers/settings/.cf-env

password=CHANGE_ME_CHANGE_ME_CHANGE_ME_CHANGE_ME
INSTALLER_UI=SILENT
SILENT_ENABLE_RDS=true
installModules=debugger

.devcontainers/settings/cf-settings.json

{
    "USER": {
        "user1": {
            "password": "this_password_will_not_work_it_must_be_reset",
            "datasources": [],
            "isLdap": false,
            "roles": [
                "coldfusion.rds"
            ],
            "description": "",
            "isGroup": false,
            "sandboxes": [],
            "exposedServices": [],
            "isSaml": false,
            "username": "devuser"
        }
    },

    "SECURITY": {
        "adminAuthType": "SINGLEUSER",
        "allowconcurrentadminlogin": true,
        "allowedAdminIPList": [],
        "externalAuth": "NONE",
        "rds.enabled": true,
        "rdsAuthType": "MULTIUSER",
        "secureprofile.enabled": false
    }
}

.devcontainers/docker-composer.yml

networks:
  main:

services:
  cfml-with-db:
    build:
      context: .
      dockerfile: Dockerfile
    container_name: ${WORKSPACE_NAME}-cfml-with-db
    networks: [ main ]
    volumes:
      - type: bind
        source: ../project
        target: /app/project
      - type: bind
        source: ./settings/cf-settings.json
        target: /app/settings/cf-settings.json
    ports:
      - "127.0.0.1:8501:8500"
      - "127.0.0.1:5006:5005"
    env_file:
      - ./settings/.cf-env
    environment:
      acceptEULA: "YES"
      importCFSettings: "/app/settings/cf-settings.json"

.devcontainers/Dockerfile

FROM adobecoldfusion/coldfusion2025:2025.0.4

# Switch to root if necessary to install packages
USER root

# Install Java 17 for the CFML extension
RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y openjdk-17-jdk
ENV JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/java-17-openjdk-amd64
ENV PATH="$JAVA_HOME/bin:$PATH"