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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Key Features

• Auto-discovery & Tree View:
  Automatically find .clab.yml/.clab.yaml files in your workspace and display them in a tree view. Labs are color-coded based on container states:

  • Green: All containers running
  • Red: All containers stopped
  • Yellow: Mixed (partial deployment)
  • Gray: Undeployed labs

• Context Menu Actions:
  For labs and containers, quickly deploy, destroy, redeploy (with or without cleanup), save, inspect, or open lab files and workspaces. For containers, additional commands include starting, stopping, attaching a shell, SSH, viewing logs, and copying key properties (name, ID, IP addresses, kind, image).

• Interface Tools:
  Capture traffic (via tcpdump/Wireshark or Edgeshark) and set link impairments such as delay, jitter, packet loss, rate-limit, and corruption. You can also copy an interface’s MAC address.

• Graphing & Visualization:
  Generate network graphs in multiple modes:

  • Web-based: Opens the topology in a dedicated Terminal session.
  • Draw.io: Generates a .drawio file for visual editing.
  • Interactive TopoViewer: Launches a dynamic, web-based view of your topology.

• Inspection:
  Use webviews to inspect either all labs or a single lab’s deployed containers in a neatly grouped table.

• Remote Labs:
  Works perfectly with the: SSH-Remote extension to manage labs on remote servers.

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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.

  Edgeshark Integration

  • Install Edgeshark: installs Edgeshark using docker compose

  • Uninstall Edgeshark: removes Edgeshark containers

  • Configure session hostname: set hostname for remote connections (packet capture)

  • If you want to live capture traffic using Wireshark, please download the cshargextcap plugin for the OS/distribution and install it.

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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Extension Settings

Customize your experience under containerlab.* in VS Code Settings:

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

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

• containerlab.refreshInterval (number)
  Auto-refresh interval (in ms) for the Containerlab Explorer.
  Default: 10000

• containerlab.node.execCommandMapping (object)
  Map a node’s kind to its preferred exec command (e.g. { "nokia_srlinux": "sr_cli" }).

• containerlab.wsl.wiresharkPath (string)
  Path to Wireshark in Windows from inside WSL.
  Default: /mnt/c/Program Files/Wireshark/wireshark.exe

• containerlab.remote.hostname (string)
  Hostname or IP used for remote connections (affects packet capture).
  Note: Session-specific hostname settings take precedence.

• containerlab.drawioDefaultTheme (string)
  Theme for Draw.io graphs. Options: nokia_modern, nokia, grafana.
  Default: nokia_modern

• containerlab.runtime (string)
  The container runtime to use. Options: docker, podman, ignite.
  Default: docker

• containerlab.skipCleanupWarning (boolean)
  If enabled, the extension will skip warning popups for cleanup commands (redeploy/destroy with cleanup).
  Default: false

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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

"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!