Docker MCP compatibility with vscode devcontainers

[Ilke-dev]

I’m trying to use GitHub Copilot together with Docker MCP Gateway to enhance my assistant workflow.
However, it seems impossible to use the MCP gateway when running inside a devcontainer, even though the Docker CLI works fine.

I’m mounting the host Docker socket into the container (/var/run/docker.sock), and normal Docker commands work as expected.
The problem only occurs when running:

sudo docker mcp gateway run

This always returns:

Docker Desktop is not running

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Steps to Reproduce

1. Run a devcontainer with the host Docker socket mounted.

2. Verify Docker works:

   sudo docker version

   ✅ Works (client & server info shown).

3. Compile docker-mcp binary locally.

4. Run:

   sudo docker mcp gateway run

   ❌ Fails with Docker Desktop is not running.

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Expected Behavior

docker mcp gateway run should start normally, just like other Docker commands that work fine inside the container.

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Actual Behavior

The command fails with:

Docker Desktop is not running

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Environment

• Host OS: MacOS Sequoia 15.6.1
• Docker Desktop: 4.44.3 (202357)
• Docker Engine Client: 28.3.3 (API 1.51)
• Docker Engine Server: 28.3.2 (API 1.51)
• containerd: 1.7.27
• runc: 1.2.5

Inside devcontainer, Docker CLI works fine except for the MCP gateway command.

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Additional Notes

• I can run all other Docker commands without issue.
• It looks like the MCP gateway may be checking specifically for Docker Desktop availability, instead of just using the mounted socket.
• Could this be a limitation/bug of the MCP integration not working in containerized environments?

[matt-gaddis]

You can do this if you run the gateway through docker compose in the dev container, and then configure the mcp server endpoint to the compose's gateway endpoint. See https://github.com/docker/mcp-gateway/blob/main/docs/mcp-gateway.md#how-to-run-the-mcp-gateway-with-docker-compose

[slimslenderslacks]

@Ilke-dev we can reproduce this. I think you're seeing this because we're now checking for a host settings file after determining that this is not running in the Docker Community Edition. This should work though because all the gateway needs is the docker socket (as you've already pointed out)

@masegraye I think this crept in with the feature enabled check here: https://github.com/docker/mcp-gateway/blob/main/cmd/docker-mcp/internal/desktop/features.go#L34

It could also just be that the RunningInDockerCE should have been false here because this is a devcontainer. @dgageot for devcontainers, does it make sensen to try to have RunningInDockerCE detect that it's in a devcontainer and return true?

[slimslenderslacks]

@matt-gaddis thanks for the example above too. The compose examples explicitly skip this feature check that is causing the issue.

[Ilke-dev]

@slimslenderslacks
Not sure how it could check if the environment is a devcontainer or not.

Maybe it would be a solution to just add a extra flag that corrects the RunningInDockerCE

For example:

sudo docker mcp gateway run --devcontainer

[slimslenderslacks]

That seems reasonsable to me. We'll close this one quickly because clearly there's a solution here that will allow us to move past "Docker Desktop is not running" - I just want to check in with the team on how to best handle this.