# Devcontainer dotfiles should have specific environment variable

**URL:** <https://forum.cursor.com/t/devcontainer-dotfiles-should-have-specific-environment-variable/144109>\
**Category:** Feature Requests\
**Created:** [November 25, 2025, 1:06pm UTC](https://forum.cursor.com/t/devcontainer-dotfiles-should-have-specific-environment-variable/144109 "2025-11-25T13:06:06Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![TeddyAndrieux](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@TeddyAndrieux](https://forum.cursor.com/u/TeddyAndrieux)\
**Post date:** [November 25, 2025, 1:06pm UTC](https://forum.cursor.com/t/devcontainer-dotfiles-should-have-specific-environment-variable/144109/1 "2025-11-25T13:06:06Z")

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### Feature request for product/service

Anysphere Extensions (Remote SSH, Python, Dev Containers, WSL, C/C++/C#)

### Describe the request

In VSCode devcontainer always has the environment variable `REMOTE_CONTAINERS` set to “true” which is pretty usefull for dotfiles repository to do action based on the type of environment.

From what I see on Anysphere Extensions for Devcontainers there is no variable like this one set.

Can we either add `REMOTE_CONTAINERS` variable by default (like in VSCode) or add ability in Devcontainer extension settings to add arbitrary environment variable

### Operating System (if it applies)

Linux