# squarebox

A containerized terminal development environment bundling modern CLI and TUI tools, several AI coding assistants, language SDKs and shell aliases, runnable the same way on a desktop, VPS or cloud workspace.

squarebox packages a complete terminal-based development environment into a single Docker or experimental Podman container: modern CLI and TUI tools, AI coding assistants such as Claude Code, Codex, Gemini and OpenCode, language SDKs, and an opinionated set of shell aliases. The same container can run on a desktop, a VPS or a cloud Codespace, and can be reached over SSH from another device.

Installation is a one-line script with an interactive first-run setup and default configuration; the installer auto-detects Docker or Podman, and the runtime can also be chosen with an environment variable. Podman support is described as experimental and may have rough edges around volume mounts, SSH agent forwarding or rebuild flows.

It is written in Shell and released under the MIT license.

Website: https://github.com/SquareWaveSystems/squarebox