README npm install section mentions Python and C/C++ but they are no longer needed

Open Beginner friendly
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Assessment

Difficulty
1/5
Estimated time
Under an hour
Newbie friendliness
92/100
Issue type
Documentation
Clarity
Clearly specified
Activity status
Quiet
Tech stack
node.js
Domain
documentation

Research direction

Open README.md at the npm install section linked in the issue and compare its prerequisite text with the package-install behavior described here. Remove the outdated Python/C/C++ prerequisite note and the VS Code wiki link, then verify that the section accurately describes installing @devcontainers/cli without a build toolchain.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Description

The README's npm install section says:

To install the npm package you will need Python and C/C++ installed to build one of the dependencies (see, e.g., here for instructions).

This hasn't been true since v0.50.0. PR #585 removed node-pty from the published package, and build/patch-packagejson.js strips all dependencies before npm pack, so the tarball on npm has no deps to install at all.

Quick check with node:24-slim, which has no build toolchain:

$ docker run --rm node:24-slim sh -c "which python3 || echo 'not found'; which gcc || echo 'not found'; which make || echo 'not found'"
not found
not found
not found

$ docker run --rm node:24-slim sh -c "npm install -g @devcontainers/cli 2>&1 && npm list -g && devcontainer --version"
added 1 package in 1s
/usr/local/lib
+-- @devcontainers/cli@0.86.0
+-- corepack@0.34.6
`-- npm@11.11.0

0.86.0

Installs and runs fine without any build toolchain.

The prerequisite note and the link to the VS Code "How to Contribute" wiki should be removed from this section.

Related

  • #63
  • #585
Dominant language
TypeScript
Stars
3k
Forks
461
Avg merge
13h 17m
Merged PRs (30d)
6

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

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  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

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