Configuration

Container naming

Containers are named md-<repo-name>-<branch-name>. Each is locked to a repo-branch pair.

Container setup

Each container has:

• Isolated git clone — ~/src/<repo-name> inside tracks a base branch matching your local branch
• User-mapped permissions — runs as your local user ID for correct file permissions
• SSH access — ssh md-<repo>-<branch>
• Preinstalled tools — TypeScript, Go, Rust, Node.js, Python, Neovim, Android SDK (x64)

Environment variables

Pass env vars via:

1. .env file in your repository root (auto-mounted)
2. ~/.config/md/env on the host (applies to all containers)

# ~/.config/md/env
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=your_key
OPENAI_API_KEY=your_key

Agent configuration files

These host directories are automatically mounted into each container:

• ~/.amp, ~/.claude, ~/.codex, ~/.gemini, ~/.kilocode, ~/.kimi, ~/.pi, ~/.qwen
• ~/.config/agents, ~/.config/amp, ~/.config/goose, ~/.config/opencode
• ~/.local/share/amp, ~/.local/share/goose, ~/.local/share/opencode
• ~/.android (ADB keys)

Build cache injection

md start bakes your local build-tool caches into the container image at build time, so the container starts with warm caches.

Cache name	Host path	Container path
bun	~/.bun/install/cache	/home/user/.bun/install/cache
cargo	~/.cargo/registry, ~/.cargo/git	/home/user/.cargo/{registry,git}
go-mod	~/go/pkg/mod	/home/user/go/pkg/mod
gradle	~/.gradle/caches, ~/.gradle/wrapper/dists	/home/user/.gradle/{caches,wrapper/dists}
maven	~/.m2/repository	/home/user/.m2/repository
npm	~/.npm	/home/user/.npm
pip	~/.cache/pip	/home/user/.cache/pip
pnpm	~/.local/share/pnpm/store	/home/user/.local/share/pnpm/store
uv	~/.cache/uv	/home/user/.cache/uv

Caches are only included when the host directory exists; missing directories are silently skipped. The image is rebuilt only when the cache set changes, the base image updates, or the build context changes.

md start -no-cache go-mod -no-cache cargo   # skip specific caches
md start -no-caches                           # disable all caches
md start -no-caches -cache go-mod            # only go-mod
md start -cache /path/to/my/cache:/home/user/.mycache  # custom cache

GitHub authentication

The container does not have access to your GitHub credentials. To authenticate:

gh auth login