chore(repo): add a devcontainer config to ease developer setup (#16302)

.devcontainer/devcontainer.json

@@ -0,0 +1,28 @@
+// For format details, see https://aka.ms/devcontainer.json. For config options, see the
+// README at: https://github.com/devcontainers/templates/tree/main/src/typescript-node
+{
+  "name": "NxDevContainer",
+  // Or use a Dockerfile or Docker Compose file. More info: https://containers.dev/guide/dockerfile
+  "image": "mcr.microsoft.com/devcontainers/typescript-node:0-18",
+  "features": {
+    "ghcr.io/devcontainers/features/rust:1": {}
+  },
+
+  // Use 'forwardPorts' to make a list of ports inside the container available locally.
+  // 4211 = nx graph port
+  "forwardPorts": [4211],
+
+  // Use 'postCreateCommand' to run commands after the container is created.
+  "postCreateCommand": "yarn install",
+  "customizations": {
+    "vscode": {
+      "extensions": ["nrwl.angular-console"]
+    }
+  }
+
+  // Configure tool-specific properties.
+  // "customizations": {},
+
+  // Uncomment to connect as root instead. More info: https://aka.ms/dev-containers-non-root.
+  // "remoteUser": "root"
+}

CONTRIBUTING.md

@@ -35,9 +35,24 @@ Source code and documentation are included in the top-level folders listed below
 - `scripts` - Miscellaneous scripts for project tasks such as building documentation, testing, and code formatting.
 - `tmp` - Folder used by e2e tests. If you are a WebStorm user, make sure to mark this folder as excluded.
 
+## Development Workstation Setup
+
+If you are using `VSCode`, and provided you have [Docker](https://docker.com) installed on your machine, then you can leverage [Dev Containers](https://containers.dev) through this [VSCode extension](https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=ms-vscode-remote.remote-containers), to easily setup your development environment, with everything needed to contribute to Nx, already installed (namely `NodeJS`, `Yarn`, `Rust`, `Cargo`, plus some useful extensions like `Nx Console`).
+
+To do so, simply:
+
+- Checkout the repo
+- Open it with VSCode
+- Open the "Commands prompt" and select "Dev Containers: Open Folder in Container..."
+
+The repo comes with a preconfigured `devcontainer.json` file (located in `.devcontainer/` folder at root), that `VSCode` will automatically use to install the aforementioned tools, inside a Docker image. It will even run `yarn install` for you, so you can start contributing to Nx right after.
+
+If you open the repo in [Github Codespace](https://github.com/features/codespaces), it will also leverage this config file, to setup the codespace, with the same required tools.
+
 ## Building the Project
 
 > Nx uses Rust to build native bindings for Node. Please make sure that you have Rust installed via [rustup.rs](https://rustup.rs)
+> If you have VSCode + Docker, this can be automated for you, see [section](#development-workstation-setup) above
 
 After cloning the project to your machine, to install the dependencies, run: