Container Detect

Detect if your Python process is running inside a container. Supports Docker, Podman, Kubernetes, containerd, LXC, and more. Inspired by the popular is-inside-container npm package. Supports cached results with optional refresh.

Features

• Fast and reliable container detection for multiple container types
• Supports Docker, Podman, Kubernetes, containerd, LXC, and more
• Multiple detection methods for robustness
• Cached results for performance optimization
• Zero dependencies, minimal overhead
• Type hints for better IDE support
• Graceful error handling

Supported Container Types

• Docker - Classic Docker containers
• Podman - Podman containers
• Kubernetes - Kubernetes pods
• containerd - containerd containers
• LXC - Linux Containers
• CRI-O - Container Runtime Interface
• AWS ECS - Amazon Elastic Container Service
• And more container runtimes

Installation

pip install container-detect

Or using uv:

uv add container-detect

Usage

Check if running inside a container

from container_detect import is_inside_container

if is_inside_container():
    print("Running inside a container")
else:
    print("Not running inside a container")

Force refresh cache

from container_detect import is_inside_container

# Use cached result (default)
is_inside_container()  # Fast, uses cache

# Force a fresh check, bypassing cache
is_inside_container(force_refresh=True)  # Performs new detection

Credits

This package is inspired by the is-inside-container (npm) npm package by Sindre Sorhus.

Changelog

See CHANGELOG.md for a detailed list of changes and version history.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please read our Contributing Guide for details on our code of conduct, development setup, and the process for submitting pull requests.

Support

If you find this library useful, please consider:

• ⭐ Starring the repository on GitHub to help others discover it.
• 💖 Sponsoring to support ongoing maintenance and development.

Become a Sponsor on GitHub | Support on Patreon

License

MIT License - see LICENSE file for details.

Author

Y. Siva Sai Krishna

• GitHub: @ysskrishna
• LinkedIn: ysskrishna