claude-forge
claude-forge launches Claude Code inside isolated Docker containers with a secure gateway proxy for GitHub access. The gateway allows read operations (clone, pull, fetch) to any repository but restricts push and write operations to only the current project's repository.
📖 Full documentation: https://michael-freling.github.io/claude-forge/
Features
- Runs Claude Code in Docker with
--dangerously-skip-permissions by default
- Gateway proxy mediates all GitHub traffic (git + API) with per-repo write restrictions
- Per-session GitHub MCP sidecar scoped to the current repository
- A first-party Kubernetes MCP server (
mcp/k8s-mcp/, added as a custom container server) serving every context in your own kubeconfig, with policy-enforced carveouts — no secrets, no exec, no RBAC
- Custom MCP servers (remote http/sse or stdio) configurable per install
- A ready-made read-only, multi-project Google Cloud MCP server (added as a custom container server)
- Optional Docker-in-Docker: sessions get their own isolated Docker daemon, unable to see or touch host or other sessions' containers
- Multiple instances can run in parallel across different projects
- Named sessions with persistence — resume previous sessions by ID or name
- Local web dashboard (
claude-forge dashboard) showing each project's sessions, their pull requests, and session- and global-scope MCP server status
- Automatic auth detection from
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY, CLAUDE_CODE_OAUTH_TOKEN, or ~/.claude/.credentials.json
- Dependency caching for Go, npm, pnpm, and pip
- Host git identity, Claude Code configuration, and plugins carried into the container
Prerequisites
- Docker (daemon must be running)
- Go 1.25+ (to build from source)
- A Claude Code subscription or API key
Installation
go install github.com/michael-freling/claude-forge/cmd/claude-forge@latest
Or build from source:
git clone https://github.com/michael-freling/claude-forge.git
cd claude-forge
go build -o claude-forge ./cmd/claude-forge/
Quick Start
# Navigate to your project directory
cd ~/my-project
# Start an interactive session (the name is required)
claude-forge start "add auth tests"
# Start with a prompt (non-interactive, exits when done)
claude-forge start "auth tests" -p "Add unit tests for the auth package"
On first run, claude-forge build is called automatically to pull the agent, gateway, and GitHub MCP Docker images.
Documentation
The full user guide lives on the documentation site:
- Getting Started — install and run your first session
- Usage — the full CLI command reference
- Configuration — the
config.yaml reference and credential detection
- MCP Servers — the built-in GitHub server, the first-party Kubernetes and Google Cloud servers, and adding custom ones
- How It Works — what happens when a session starts
License
MIT
