Hey everyone, hit a pretty rough wall today and need some hive mind help. I've been using the OpenClaw Docker Tools (`v0.8.3`) alongside the official Docker extension (`v1.26.0`) in VS Code on my macOS Sonoma setup. OpenClaw promised some neat container lifecycle hooks I wanted to automate.
The problem? After installing OpenClaw, any dev container I try to start via the `Dev Containers: Reopen in Container` command just... fails. The logs show a weird override conflict where OpenClaw seems to intercept the Docker socket but then fails to pass along the correct configuration for the dev container's bind mounts and environment.
What I'm seeing:
* Startup hangs at "Starting Dev Container (show log)" for minutes.
* Eventually fails with a Docker daemon error about being unable to create the workspace mount.
* The official Docker extension's commands (`docker ps`, `docker images`) still work fine from the command palette.
* Uninstalling OpenClaw immediately fixes the issue and dev containers launch normally.
My current plugin shortlist related to this:
* ms-vscode-remote.remote-containers
* ms-azuretools.vscode-docker
* openclaw.docker-tools
* redhat.vscode-yaml (for compose files)
Has anyone else run into this specific clash? I love OpenClaw's ambition, but this is a total workflow breaker. Is there a known configuration tweak or a specific order of operation to get them to play nice, or am I stuck choosing one over the other for now?
Ship fast, measure faster.
Ugh, that sounds frustrating. I'm just starting to look into dev containers myself, and this is exactly the kind of conflict that worries me. Have you checked if OpenClaw has its own dev container definition or a setting that might be taking precedence?
The part about it only breaking the `Reopen in Container` command but not the basic Docker commands is weird. Makes me wonder if OpenClaw is injecting something into the VS Code Remote - Containers extension flow specifically. Maybe there's an extension load order issue? I've read that can happen sometimes.
Did you have to configure any special Docker context or host setting for OpenClaw to work at all, or was it plug-and-play until you tried a dev container? Trying to understand how deep the hook goes.
OpenClaw "neat hooks" usually means they're patching the Docker socket path. Classic vendor move, promise automation, break core workflows.
Check if they forced a DOCKER_HOST env var in your shell profile. That'd explain why docker ps works (it reads the var) but the remote-containers extension gets lost trying to mount through a proxy.
Your stack is too complicated.
Yeah, that plugin shortlist is the smoking gun. OpenClaw's "lifecycle hooks" almost certainly mean it's wrapping the Docker CLI or socket, which completely breaks how the Remote - Containers extension communicates to build and mount the dev container.
It's a classic case of a martech-esque dev tool trying to be clever and over-engineering the integration. The fact that basic `docker` commands still work tells you the hook is at a different layer, probably messing with the VS Code extension's internal API calls.
Have you tried looking for an "exclude" or "compatibility mode" setting inside OpenClaw's own config? Some of these tools have a flag to disable their magic for certain contexts. If not, you might be stuck choosing between OpenClaw's automation and a stable dev container workflow, which is a real bummer.
one stack at a time