Antigravity in Docker

Run Google Antigravity and Google Chrome inside Docker, exposed through noVNC in your browser.

This setup:

• mounts a local directory into the container as /workspace
• starts Antigravity automatically
• supports Google sign-in inside the container
• uses the official Google Antigravity Linux APT package feed

Current desktop resolution: 2160x1440

Requirements

• Docker Engine
• Docker Compose v2
• On Arch Linux, the Docker daemon must be running:

sudo systemctl enable --now docker.service

Run

From this directory:

export VNC_PASSWORD='replace-this'
export DOCKER_GID="$(stat -c '%g' /var/run/docker.sock)"

# optional:
# export WORKSPACE_DIR=/absolute/path/to/another/repo

docker compose up -d --build
# or if you need to recreate it:
docker compose up -d --build --force-recreate

Open:

http://localhost:6080/vnc.html

Enter VNC_PASSWORD when prompted. Antigravity opens /workspace, which defaults to the current directory unless WORKSPACE_DIR is set.

Stop it with:

docker compose down

Configuration

• VNC_PASSWORD Defaults to changeme if not exported.
• WORKSPACE_DIR Defaults to the current directory and is mounted to /workspace.
• Port The noVNC UI is published on 6080 in docker-compose.yml.
• Resolution The VNC desktop size is set in startup.sh.

Important Runtime Settings

Do not remove these unless you want to re-debug Chromium inside Docker:

• seccomp:unconfined Antigravity's Chromium runtime needs namespace operations blocked by Docker's default seccomp profile.
• shm_size: 2gb Google auth popups were unreliable with Docker's default /dev/shm.
• Chrome wrapper with --disable-dev-shm-usage Helps keep the Google sign-in popup stable inside the container.
• dbus-run-session Antigravity is launched inside a session bus so the Google auth browser can render and return cleanly.

What Is Installed

• Debian Bookworm base image
• TigerVNC + noVNC + Openbox
• Google Chrome from Google's Linux APT repo
• antigravity from Google's Artifact Registry APT repo

Benefits and Drawbacks

Benefits

• Works on hosts where a native Antigravity setup is inconvenient, including Arch.
• Reproducible environment: same base image, same package sources, same startup flow.
• Easy to reset or update by rebuilding the image.
• Browser-based access through noVNC, with no separate host desktop integration required.
• Keeps most app dependencies inside the container instead of on the host.
• Uses the official Google Antigravity Linux package feed.
• Keeps the mounted workspace separate from the app/runtime environment.

Drawbacks

• Less native and usually slower than running directly on the host.
• More moving parts: Docker, VNC, noVNC, Chrome, DBus, and container security settings.
• Google sign-in is more fragile in containers than on a normal desktop.
• Hardware acceleration is limited, so GUI responsiveness can be worse.
• Image size and rebuild time are larger than a simple CLI-style container.
• Host integration is weaker for things like clipboard behavior, file dialogs, and notifications.
• This setup relies on seccomp:unconfined, so it is less locked down than a default Docker profile.

Keep Antigravity Up to Date

1. Manual update

Preferred approach: rebuild the image without Docker layer cache so the latest antigravity package is installed into the image itself.

docker compose build --no-cache antigravity
docker compose up -d --force-recreate antigravity

Verify the installed version:

docker compose exec antigravity bash -lc 'apt-cache policy antigravity | sed -n "1,20p"'
docker compose exec antigravity bash -lc 'dpkg -s antigravity | sed -n "1,20p"'

If you also want the newest Chrome package from Google's repo, use the same no-cache rebuild flow.

2. Let Antigravity's agent do it for you

Open this repo in Antigravity and ask the agent to perform the same persistent update flow. This repo includes AGENTS.md with repo-specific guidance, so the agent should follow it.

Example prompt:

Update the Antigravity Docker image in this repo to the latest available package version.
Use the persistent image-based approach, not a one-off in-container apt upgrade.
Rebuild with no cache, recreate the container, then verify the installed version with
`apt-cache policy antigravity` and `dpkg -s antigravity`. Show me the final version.

The important part is to avoid a temporary update only inside the running container. A one-off apt-get install antigravity inside the live container will be lost the next time the container is rebuilt or recreated.

Verify It Is Official Google Antigravity

Check the configured package source:

docker compose exec antigravity bash -lc 'cat /etc/apt/sources.list.d/antigravity.list'

Expected repo:

https://us-central1-apt.pkg.dev/projects/antigravity-auto-updater-dev/

Check the installed package metadata:

docker compose exec antigravity bash -lc 'dpkg -s antigravity | sed -n "1,20p"'

Expected fields include:

• Maintainer: Google, LLC
• Homepage: https://antigravity.google

Check the repo signing key:

docker compose exec antigravity bash -lc 'gpg --show-keys --with-fingerprint /etc/apt/keyrings/antigravity.gpg'

Expected signer:

• Artifact Registry Repository Signer <artifact-registry-repository-signer@google.com>
• fingerprint 35BA A0B3 3E9E B396 F59C A838 C0BA 5CE6 DC63 15A3

Google's own download frontend references the same Linux APT key URL and pkg.dev project repo used by this image.

Rebuild After Changes

If you change Dockerfile, startup.sh, or docker-compose.yml:

docker compose up -d --build

Quick Checks

Verify the noVNC endpoint:

curl -I http://localhost:6080/vnc.html

Check that Antigravity is running:

docker compose exec antigravity bash -lc 'pgrep -af "antigravity /workspace"'