This repository contains the minimal IsaacLab image to work within a devcontainer in VScode.

I find very useful to work inside a devcontainer and didn't find any example for Isaac Lab installation, fill free to use and improve it.

First tried to do the Dockerfile from the last IsaacLab image provided, but didn't manage to compile it. This version starts from "nvcr.io/nvidia/isaac-sim:4.5.0 image and install isaac lab from repository.

Testing set up

Host OS:

• Ubuntu 24.04.2 LTS

• Docker version 28.2.2

• NVIDIA Container Runtime Hook version 1.17.8

  commit: f202b80a9b9d0db00d9b1d73c0128c8962c55f4d

• VScode version 1.101.1

Hardware:

• CPU: AMD Ryzen™ 7 5800X × 16
• GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX™ 3060
• GPU drivers: NVIDIA driver metapackage from nvidia-driver-570

Performace

For my setup I observed the following behaviours:

1. Starting the container takes lot of time to download and build all the images (15Gb). Be patient.

   Warning: The image of this DevContainer weights 27Gb, be careful when iterating frustrated container builds, this can take your disk space very rapidly.

2. First time isaac-sim GUI openning takes lot of time (~10 mins). If no error arrise, don't worry just be patient. Don't worry about the pop up saying isaac-sim is not responding.

3. Once images are downloaded and built and isaac-sim is cached, start the environment takes just seconds.

Prerequisites

ref: https://isaac-sim.github.io/IsaacLab/main/source/deployment/docker.html

1. install docker

   sudo apt-get update
   sudo apt-get install ca-certificates curl
   sudo install -m 0755 -d /etc/apt/keyrings
   sudo curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg -o /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc
   sudo chmod a+r /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc
   
   # Add the repository to Apt sources:
   echo   "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu \
   $(. /etc/os-release && echo "${UBUNTU_CODENAME:-$VERSION_CODENAME}") stable" |   sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list > /dev/null
   
   sudo apt-get update
   
   sudo apt-get install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-buildx-plugin docker-compose-plugin
   sudo docker run hello-world

   sudo groupadd docker
   
   sudo usermod -aG docker $USER

2. Install NVIDIA Container Toolkit for hardware acceleration

   ref: https://docs.nvidia.com/datacenter/cloud-native/container-toolkit/latest/install-guide.html

   This provides infrastructure to use GPU in a container [No CUDA installation is needed in host]

   curl -fsSL https://nvidia.github.io/libnvidia-container/gpgkey | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/nvidia-container-toolkit-keyring.gpg     && curl -s -L https://nvidia.github.io/libnvidia-container/stable/deb/nvidia-container-toolkit.list |     sed 's#deb https://#deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/nvidia-container-toolkit-keyring.gpg] https://#g' |     sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/nvidia-container-toolkit.list     &&     sudo apt-get update
   sudo apt-get install -y nvidia-container-toolkit
   sudo systemctl restart docker
   sudo nvidia-ctk runtime configure --runtime=docker
   sudo systemctl restart docker
   docker run --rm --runtime=nvidia --gpus all ubuntu nvidia-smi

Run the dev container

Warning: The image of this DevContainer weights 27Gb, be careful when iterating frustrated container builds, this can take your disk space very rapidly.

1. If necessary, enable xhost for GUI fordwarding.

   At host, run:

   xhost +local:root

   You have to do this every new session.

2. Open the repo root folder in a Dev Container with VScode

3. Test isaac sim works

   ./../isaac-sim/isaac-sim.selector.sh --allow-root

4. Test isaac lab works

   python /isaac-sim/IsaacLab/scripts/tutorials/00_sim/log_time.py

Usage

Once evething is installed, you can start playing with your Isaac Sim & Isaac Lab installation.

Isaac Sim installation is at /isaac-sim folder in the root directory of the container.

Isaac Lab installation is inside isaac-sim installation at /isaac-sim/IsaacLab folder from the root directory of the container.

For example you can start creating an asset with:

1. Create and install the asset

   ref: https://isaac-sim.github.io/IsaacLab/main/source/setup/quickstart.html#

   At /workspace directory run (you can change extrange_robot for the name of your package):

   ./isaac-sim/IsaacLab/isaaclab.sh --new source/extrange_robot/
   
   # install the new asset into the Isaac Lab framework
   python -m pip install -e source/extrange_robot/
   
   # check your asset is loaded
   python scripts/environments/list_envs.py

2. Start running a single robot without RL agent

   python scripts/zero_agent.py --task=Template-Extrange-Robot-Direct-v0 --rendering_mode=performance

3. Execute trainning and play

   python scripts/rsl_rl/train.py \
       --task Template-Extrange-Robot-Direct-v0 \
       --num_envs 2000 \
       --headless \
       --run_name extrange_run \
       --max_iterations 301 \
       --load_run 2025-06-15_00-56-20_extrange_run \
       --resume
   
   python scripts/rsl_rl/play.py \
       --task Template-Extrange-Robot-Direct-v0 \
       --checkpoint logs/rsl_rl/extrange_robot_ppo/2025-06-15_00-56-20_extrange_run/model_300.pt

TODO

• Update Dockerfile to start from latest isaaclab image
• Make script o something to extract a clean image for deployment from the dev container.

---

License

MIT License

Copyright (c) 2025 Miguel Ayuso Parrilla

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.