vscode-containerlab

A Visual Studio Code extension that integrates containerlab directly into your editor, providing a convenient tree view for managing labs and their containers.

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Features

• Auto-discovery of local *.clab.yml or *.clab.yaml files in your workspace.
• Tree view showing labs (green/red/gray/yellow icons) based on container states:
  • Green: all containers in the lab are running
  • Gray: undeployed (no containers found)
  • Red: all containers are stopped
  • Yellow: partially running (some containers running, others stopped)
• Right-click context menus on labs:
  • Deploy, Destroy, Redeploy (with or without cleanup)
  • Open Lab File, Copy Lab File Path
  • Graph topologies (local Web or draw.io modes)
  • Inspect single lab
  • Add Lab to Workspace
  • Open Folder in New Window
• Right-click context menus on containers:
  • Start, Stop
  • Attach shell (with user-defined exec commands per node kind)
  • SSH
  • View logs
  • Copy submenu for container properties:
    • Name, ID, IPv4, IPv6, Kind, Image
• Right-click context menus on interfaces:
  • Capture interface: starts packet capture using tcpdump/Wireshark
  • Capture interface (Edgeshark): uses Edgeshark/packetflix
  • Set delay: configure link delay
  • Set jitter: configure link jitter
  • Set packet loss: configure packet loss percentage
  • Set rate-limit: configure egress rate-limit
  • Set corruption: configure packet corruption percentage
  • Copy MAC address: copy interface MAC address
• Inspect commands:
  • Inspect (All Labs): shows a webview with all labs in a grouped table
  • Inspect Lab: show only the selected lab’s containers in a webview
• Graph:
  • Graph Lab (Web): runs containerlab graph in a Terminal
  • Graph Lab (draw.io): runs containerlab graph --drawio , then opens the .drawio file
  • Graph Lab (draw.io, Interactive): runs in Terminal with in interactive mode
  • Graph Lab (Topoviewer): interactive, web-based interface for visualizing Containerlab topologies

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Requirements

• containerlab must be installed and accessible in your system PATH. The extension will offer to install it if not found.
• (Optional) Edgeshark for packet capture features - can be installed directly from the extension using the "Install Edgeshark" command.

Note: The extension will automatically prompt to add your user to the clab_admins group during setup to enable running containerlab commands without sudo.

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Getting Started

1. Install the extension.
2. Open a folder or workspace in VS Code containing .clab.yml or .clab.yaml files.
3. Click on the Containerlab icon in the Activity Bar to view your labs.
4. Right-click on a lab or container to see context menu commands (Deploy, Destroy, Redeploy, etc.).

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Commands

These are some key commands contributed by the extension:

Lab Management

• Deploy / Deploy (cleanup)
• Redeploy / Redeploy (cleanup)
• Destroy / Destroy (cleanup)
• Deploy lab file (choose a .clab.yml/.yaml from a file picker)

Lab Inspection

• Inspect (All Labs): Summaries all labs in one webview
• Inspect Lab: Summaries the containers for a single lab

Graph

• Graph Lab (Web): runs in Terminal
• Graph Lab (draw.io): uses a spinner and opens the .drawio file
• Graph Lab (draw.io, Interactive): same but with additional --drawio-args "-I".
• Graph Lab (Topoviewer): interactive, web-based visualization

Node / Container Management

• Start node, Stop node
• Attach shell (exec into container—respects containerlab.node.execCommandMapping in settings)
• SSH
• View logs (tails docker logs -f ...)
• Copy menu (Name, ID, IPv4, IPv6, Kind, Image)

Interface Management

• Capture interface: starts packet capture on an interface using tcpdump/Wireshark
• Capture interface (Edgeshark): uses Edgeshark/packetflix for packet capture
• Set delay: configure link delay for an interface
• Set jitter: configure link jitter for an interface
• Set packet loss: configure packet loss percentage for an interface
• Set rate-limit: configure egress rate-limit for an interface
• Set corruption: configure packet corruption percentage for an interface
• Copy MAC address: copy interface MAC address to clipboard

Edgeshark Integration

• Install Edgeshark: installs Edgeshark using docker compose
• Uninstall Edgeshark: removes Edgeshark containers
• Configure session hostname: set hostname for remote connections (packet capture)

Other

• Add Lab to Workspace: adds the lab’s folder to the current VS Code workspace
• Open Folder in New Window: opens a separate VS Code window rooted at the lab’s folder

All these commands are accessible via:

• Context menus on labs/containers (in the Containerlab Explorer)
• Editor title (top-right) when editing a .clab.(yml|yaml)
• Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P or Cmd+Shift+P, then type “Containerlab:”)

Extension Settings

You can customize the following settings under containerlab.*:

• containerlab.defaultSshUser (string)
  Default SSH user for the SSH command (e.g. "admin").

• containerlab.sudoEnabledByDefault (boolean)
  Whether to prepend sudo to containerlab commands. Default: true.

• containerlab.refreshInterval (number)
  How often (in ms) the Containerlab Explorer refreshes. Default: 10000.

• containerlab.node.execCommandMapping (object)
  Mapping of node kind to the exec command used by Attach shell.
  For example, if you have "nokia_srlinux": "sr_cli", then docker exec -it <container> sr_cli is used.

• containerlab.wsl.wiresharkPath (string)
  The path to Wireshark executable on Windows from inside WSL.
  Default: /mnt/c/Program Files/Wireshark/wireshark.exe

• containerlab.remote.hostname (string)
  The hostname to use for connections to/from this host. Can be either DNS resolvable hostname, or an IPv4/6 address.
  Used for packet capture features.
  Note: A configured hostname for this session of VS Code takes precedence.

• containerlab.drawioDefaultTheme (string)
  Default theme to use when generating DrawIO graphs.
  Options: nokia_modern, nokia, grafana
  Default: nokia_modern

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Monitor Deployment Progress

When deploying labs, you can monitor the detailed progress in the Output window:

1. Open the Output panel (Ctrl+Shift+U or View -> Output)
2. Select "Containerlab" from the dropdown menu
3. Watch the deployment logs in real-time

Auto-refresh Behavior

• The Containerlab Explorer automatically refreshes based on the containerlab.refreshInterval setting
• Labs are consistently sorted:
  • Deployed labs appear before undeployed labs
  • Within each group (deployed/undeployed), labs are sorted by their absolute path

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Known Issues

"Unable to detect containerlab version" Error

If you see this error message despite having containerlab correctly installed, there are two common causes:

1. GitHub API Rate Limiting
   • The version check makes API calls to GitHub to compare versions
   • Without authentication, these calls are subject to rate limiting
   • Solution: Set your GitHub token as an environment variable:

export GITHUB_TOKEN=your_github_token_here

2. Sudo Permission Configuration
   • The extension tries to run 'sudo containerlab version check'
   • This requires passwordless sudo access for the containerlab command
   • Solution: Configure passwordless sudo specifically for containerlab:

# Replace <user> with your actual username, e.g., john
sudo visudo -f /etc/sudoers.d/<user>

Add this line in the editor (replace with your username):

<user> ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/containerlab

Note: Future versions of the extension will improve handling of these scenarios to provide a better user experience.

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"I do not see any interfaces on my deployed lab"

Labs which are deployed with containerlab < 0.64.0 , needing a redeploy.

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Feedback and Contributions

If you’d like to request features or report issues:

• Open an issue on our GitHub repository.

• PRs are welcome! Let us know how we can improve the extension.

• GitHub Issues: Create an issue on GitHub.

• Discord: Join our Discord community

Enjoy managing your containerlab topologies directly from VS Code!