Creating template
When creating a template, you can specify options:
JavaScript & TypeScript
Python
const template = Template ({
fileContextPath: "." , // Custom file context path
fileIgnorePatterns: [ ".git" , "node_modules" ], // File patterns to ignore
});
File ignoring : The SDK automatically reads .dockerignore files and combines them with your fileIgnorePatterns (TypeScript) or file_ignore_patterns (Python). Files matching these patterns are excluded from uploads and hash calculations.
Defining base image
Choose from predefined base images or use custom ones:
JavaScript & TypeScript
Python
// Predefined base images
template. fromUbuntuImage ( "lts" ); // ubuntu:lts
template. fromUbuntuImage ( "22.04" ); // ubuntu:22.04
template. fromDebianImage ( "slim" ); // debian:slim
template. fromDebianImage ( "bullseye" ); // debian:bullseye
template. fromPythonImage ( "3.13" ); // python:3.13
template. fromPythonImage ( "3.11" ); // python:3.11
template. fromNodeImage ( "lts" ); // node:lts
template. fromNodeImage ( "20" ); // node:20
// Custom base image
template. fromImage ( "custom-image:latest" );
// Use default E2B base image
template. fromBaseImage (); // e2bdev/base
// Parse existing Dockerfile
const dockerfileContent = `
FROM node:18-alpine
WORKDIR /app
COPY package*.json ./
RUN npm ci --only=production
COPY . .
ENV NODE_ENV=production` ;
template. fromDockerfile (dockerfileContent);
You can only call base image methods once per template. Subsequent calls will throw an error.
Parsing existing Dockerfiles
Convert existing Dockerfiles to template format using fromDockerfile():
JavaScript & TypeScript
Python
const dockerfileContent = `
FROM ubuntu:22.04
RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y curl
WORKDIR /app
COPY . .
ENV NODE_ENV=production
ENV PORT=3000
USER appuser` ;
const template = Template ()
. fromDockerfile (dockerfileContent)
. setStartCmd ( "npm start" , waitForTimeout ( 5_000 ));
Dockerfile instructions support
Instruction Supported Behavior FROMSets base image RUNConverts to runCmd() / run_cmd() COPY / ADDConverts to copy() WORKDIRConverts to setWorkdir() / set_workdir() USERConverts to setUser() / set_user() ENVConverts to setEnvs() / set_envs(); supports both ENV key=value and ENV key value formats CMD / ENTRYPOINTConverts to setStartCmd() / set_start_cmd() with 20 seconds timeout as ready command EXPOSESkipped (not supported) VOLUMESkipped (not supported)
Multi-stage Dockerfiles are not supported.