CodeWhale publishes a multi-arch Linux image to GitHub Container Registry for each release.
docker pull ghcr.io/hmbown/codewhale:latestRun the published image with a Docker-managed data volume:
docker volume create codewhale-home
docker run --rm -it \
-e DEEPSEEK_API_KEY="$DEEPSEEK_API_KEY" \
-v codewhale-home:/home/codewhale/.deepseek \
-v "$PWD:/workspace" \
-w /workspace \
ghcr.io/hmbown/codewhale:latestUse a pinned release tag for reproducible installs:
docker run --rm -it \
-e DEEPSEEK_API_KEY="$DEEPSEEK_API_KEY" \
-v codewhale-home:/home/codewhale/.deepseek \
-v "$PWD:/workspace" \
-w /workspace \
ghcr.io/hmbown/codewhale:vX.Y.ZReplace vX.Y.Z with a tag from
GitHub Releases.
Build the image locally from a checkout:
docker build -t codewhale .Then run it with the same Docker-managed data volume:
docker run --rm -it \
-e DEEPSEEK_API_KEY="$DEEPSEEK_API_KEY" \
-v codewhale-home:/home/codewhale/.deepseek \
-v "$PWD:/workspace" \
-w /workspace \
codewhaleDocker Hub publishing is not configured; GHCR is the supported prebuilt image registry.
| Variable | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|
DEEPSEEK_API_KEY |
yes | DeepSeek API key |
DEEPSEEK_BASE_URL |
no | Custom API base URL (e.g. https://api.deepseek.com) |
DEEPSEEK_NO_COLOR |
no | Set to 1 to disable terminal colour output |
Mount /home/codewhale/.deepseek to persist sessions, config, skills, memory,
and the offline queue across container restarts. A Docker-managed named volume
is the safest default because Docker creates it with ownership the container can
write:
-v codewhale-home:/home/codewhale/.deepseekWithout this mount the container starts fresh each time.
If you bind-mount an existing host directory instead, the image runs as the
non-root codewhale user with UID/GID 1000:1000. The mounted directory must be
writable by that user, or startup can fail while creating runtime directories
under .deepseek/tasks. On Linux hosts, either use the named volume above or
prepare the bind mount explicitly:
mkdir -p ~/.deepseek
sudo chown -R 1000:1000 ~/.deepseek
docker run --rm -it \
-e DEEPSEEK_API_KEY="$DEEPSEEK_API_KEY" \
-v ~/.deepseek:/home/codewhale/.deepseek \
ghcr.io/hmbown/codewhale:latestThat chown changes ownership of the host ~/.deepseek directory. Skip it if
you do not want the container UID to own your local config, and use a named
volume instead.
When stdin is not a TTY, codewhale drops to the dispatcher's one-shot mode
(codewhale -c "…"). Pipe a prompt on stdin:
echo "Explain the Cargo.toml in structured English." | \
docker run --rm -i -e DEEPSEEK_API_KEY ghcr.io/hmbown/codewhale:latest# Single platform (your host architecture)
docker build -t codewhale .
# Multi-platform (requires a builder with emulation)
docker buildx create --use
docker buildx build --platform linux/amd64,linux/arm64 -t codewhale .The repository includes a .devcontainer/devcontainer.json
configuration for VS Code / GitHub Codespaces. It pre-installs the Rust toolchain,
rust-analyzer, and the codewhale binary. Open the repo in a devcontainer to get a
ready-to-use development environment.
Docker image publishing is part of the release gate. The image is published to
GHCR for linux/amd64 and linux/arm64 with semver tags plus latest.