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May 28, 2025

Gitpod

Faster development environment start times for AWS with Dev Container build caching

Development environment starts are now faster for organizations using AWS Runners with the addition of a new Dev Container build cache Runner setting that uses Amazon ECR.

With this setting enabled you get:

  • Faster startup times from minutes to seconds for environments with identical Dev Container configurations
  • Reclaimed developer time: Convert 5 minute development environment startup delays into 30-second starts
  • Automatically optimized start times performance without any configuration changes required

How does it work?

With the setting enabled on your AWS runner, the first environment created from a project will cache the built Dev Container image. Any changes to the Dev Container configuration will trigger a new cache build on the next environment creation.

  • All subsequent starts using the same project will benefit from significantly faster startup times.
  • Images are cached for 30 days before automatically expiring to manage storage costs.
  • The cache is restricted to users of the project and can be disabled in runner settings if needed.

The build cache speeds up developers workflows and incentivizes developers to use secure short-lived development environments.

Getting started

For new AWS runners: The Dev Container image cache is enabled by default.

For existing AWS runners:

To enable the cache:

  1. Update your CloudFormation stack to the latest version that supports the cache
  2. Go to Settings → Runners in your Gitpod organization
  3. Select your AWS runner and toggle Dev Container image cache to enabled

Note: Upgrading CloudFormation templates from January 2025 or earlier will cause existing environments to become inaccessible due to SSH port changes. Before upgrading, either stop existing environments or manually update the security group after the upgrade. Check the documentation below for more details.

Learn more about configuration, security considerations, and troubleshooting in our Dev Container image cache documentation.