Show HN: Claude-CLI – Run Claude Code in a throwaway Docker container

A developer released Claude-CLI, a shell wrapper that runs Anthropic's Claude Code inside a throwaway Docker container to keep the host system clean while persisting configuration across sessions. The tool supports multiple modes including single-directory, multi-directory, and no-directory operation, and allows users to pass flags through to Claude Code.

A lightweight shell wrapper that runs Claude Code https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code inside a Docker container, keeping your host system clean while persisting your Claude configuration across sessions. Docker https://docs.docker.com/get-docker/ with Buildx https://docs.docker.com/reference/cli/docker/buildx/ plugin dmenu https://tools.suckless.org/dmenu/ — mode selection prompt not required when using -f fzf https://github.com/junegunn/fzf — directory picker; also used for mode selection with -f - Current user must be a member of the docker group git clone https://github.com/shirozuki/claude-cli chmod +x claude-cli/claude-cli.sh ln -s "$PWD/claude-cli/claude-cli.sh" ~/.local/bin/claude-cli claude-cli -b -c -f -h DIR... | Option | Description | |---|---| -b | Build or rebuild the claude-cli:latest Docker image | -c | Remove all claude-cli containers; optionally remove the image | -f | Use fzf instead of dmenu for the mode selection prompt | -h | Show help | Running without any option or argument launches a dmenu prompt to choose a mode. Pass -f to use fzf instead — useful on setups without dmenu or when you prefer a terminal picker. You can skip the menu and pickers entirely by passing directories directly on the command line: claude-cli ~/projects/app single-dir mode claude-cli ~/projects/app ~/shared multi-dir mode first arg is the working dir - One argument runs single-dir mode with that directory. - Two or more arguments run multi-dir mode, mounting every directory and using the first as the working directory. Relative paths are resolved against the current working directory, so claude-cli . mounts $PWD . When directories are passed this way, dmenu and fzf are not required. Launches Claude without mounting any project directories. Useful for general questions, quick tasks, or exploring Claude's capabilities without exposing local files. Mounts the current working directory $PWD directly. Opens an fzf picker to select one directory from your home tree up to 3 levels deep . The selected directory is mounted and set as the working directory inside the container. Opens fzf in multi-select mode to pick several directories use Tab to select , then asks you to designate one of them as the working directory. All selected directories are mounted simultaneously — useful when working across multiple repos or sharing common config directories. Claude's configuration ~/.claude/ and ~/.claude.json is bind-mounted into the container on every run, so your account, settings, and session history survive container restarts. The mount source is resolved in this order: $XDG CONFIG HOME/claude/ — if $XDG CONFIG HOME is set $HOME/ — fallback The following environment variables can be set to override defaults without editing the script: | Variable | Default | Description | |---|---|---| CLAUDE IMAGE | claude-cli:latest | Docker image name to use | NOTIFY ERROR ICON | $XDG CONFIG HOME/dunst/critical.png | Icon used in desktop error notifications | CLAUDE CLI FLAGS | none | Extra flags passed through to the claude binary inside the container | CLAUDE CLI DOCKERFILE | see below | Path to a custom Dockerfile used to build the image highest precedence . | Examples: CLAUDE IMAGE=my-claude:dev claude-cli Pass flags through to Claude Code itself CLAUDE CLI FLAGS="--resume $session id --dangerously-skip-permissions" claude-cli Build the image from a custom Dockerfile CLAUDE CLI DOCKERFILE=~/my-claude.dockerfile claude-cli -b CLAUDE CLI FLAGS is word-split, so each space-separated token becomes a separate argument. Quote arguments that contain spaces is not supported — pass only flags whose values have no spaces. On first run or after -b , the script builds a Docker image based on node:lts with @anthropic-ai/claude-code installed globally. The container user is created with the same UID/GID as the host user to avoid file permission issues on bind-mounted volumes. The Dockerfile is selected in order of precedence: - Custom Dockerfile path CLAUDE CLI DOCKERFILE - Dockerfile next to the script claude-cli-dockerfile - Inline Dockerfile baked into the script the default The customization is purely additive: with none of the above set, the script writes its built-in Dockerfile to /tmp and builds from that, so claude-cli.sh stays self-contained and can be fetched and run entirely on its own. To customize the image, drop a claude-cli-dockerfile next to the script and it will be preferred when present: create claude-cli-dockerfile to taste, then rebuild claude-cli -b Alternatively, point CLAUDE CLI DOCKERFILE at a Dockerfile anywhere on disk. The image is tagged claude-cli:latest and reused on subsequent runs until you explicitly rebuild with -b .