lazybox

40+ modern CLI tools in a single Docker image. Tools download on first use — just add one line to any Dockerfile.

COPY --from=bonisoft3/lazybox /lazybox /usr/local

That's it. Stubs land in /usr/local/bin (already on PATH) and bootstrap themselves on any image.

What you get

Containers & K8s: docker, compose, buildx, kubectl, kind, skaffold, helm Shell & Scripting: nu (Nushell), just, task, cue, jq, yq, buf Search & Files: rg (ripgrep), fd, fzf, bat, lsd, dua, zoxide, sd Dev Tools: uv, uvx, micro, hyperfine, xh, sops, recur, tcping, age

How it works

Each tool is a tiny shell stub that bootstraps itself on first invocation:

1. The stub (~10 lines of sh) calls .lazybox which delegates to mise tool-stub <tool>.toml
2. If mise isn't installed yet, .lazybox fetches it using the bundled static curl and CA certificates
3. mise reads the TOML manifest (version, platform URLs, checksums) and downloads the real binary
4. The binary is cached — subsequent calls run it directly

All paths are resolved explicitly (no PATH lookups between components), so there are no shim loops regardless of what else is on your PATH.

Tip: Run tools during docker build (e.g., RUN jq --version) to bake them into the image layer. Otherwise they're fetched at container runtime.

Portability

Lazybox works on:

• Linux — glibc and musl/Alpine, amd64 and arm64
• macOS — Intel and Apple Silicon
• Windows — native, WSL, and Windows containers, amd64

Each stub carries platform-specific download URLs and checksums, with automatic Alpine/musl detection. When a statically linked build isn't available, the dynamically linked variant is used as fallback.

Usage

Overlay onto any image (~8 MB)

FROM ubuntu
COPY --from=bonisoft3/lazybox /lazybox /usr/local
RUN jq --version  # fetched and cached in this layer

Add extra tooling to an existing base image for ad-hoc debugging and inspection. Includes bundled static curl and CA certificates, so tools bootstrap even on images without curl.

Stubs-only overlay (~350 KB)

FROM alpine/curl
COPY --from=bonisoft3/lazybox /lazybox/bin /usr/local/bin

Keep the image minimal when the host already provides SSL-enabled curl. Only the stubs are copied — tools download on first use.

Devcontainer

FROM mcr.microsoft.com/devcontainers/base:ubuntu24.04
COPY --from=bonisoft3/lazybox:nubox /lazybox /home/vscode/.local
COPY --from=bonisoft3/lazybox:nubox /root/.config/nushell /home/vscode/.config/nushell
ENV PATH=$PATH:/home/vscode/.local/bin
CMD [ "/home/vscode/.local/bin/nu", "-l" ]

The FHS layout works under $HOME/.local just like /usr/local — add bin to PATH when the home directory is known at build time. The second COPY brings the Nushell config with mise activation. The pre-built nubox target eagerly initializes Nushell and mise. If you need even more customization, check the Dockerfile for more tricks.

From scratch

FROM scratch
COPY --from=busybox:1.36.1-musl /bin/busybox /bin/busybox
RUN ["/bin/busybox", "sh", "-c", "busybox --install /bin"]
COPY --from=bonisoft3/lazybox /lazybox /usr/local
RUN jq --version

Busybox on steroids. The stubs need a shell to bootstrap, so start with busybox to provide /bin/sh, then layer lazybox on top.

Pinned base with system packages

FROM opensuse/leap:15.6@sha256:b084d6e29d975ce9123fd52bd201ac020628797f2772e9171ef76f33cc92d591
COPY --from=bonisoft3/lazybox /lazybox /usr/local
RUN zypper install -y git-core

Good for stable builder images. Leap provides versioned repositories — packages aren't garbage-collected like in rolling distros. Pin with a multiplatform sha256 for full reproducibility. Use zypper for dependencies not available in mise, and lazybox for everything else.

Pre-caching tools

FROM bonisoft3/lazybox
ARG LAZYBOX_TOOLS="jq rg fd bat"

The lazybox image includes an ONBUILD trigger — set the LAZYBOX_TOOLS arg to pre-cache specific tools during build. Each tool's --help is invoked automatically, triggering its stub and caching the binary in the image layer. For ad-hoc caching without the arg, just RUN jq --help directly.

Run standalone

docker run --rm bonisoft3/lazybox rg --version

Useful for trying out the tools without installing anything locally.

Extract to a local directory

For when you want to test tools locally on your machine without Docker.

docker create --name lb bonisoft3/lazybox
docker cp lb:/lazybox ./lazybox
docker rm lb
export PATH="$PWD/lazybox/bin:$PATH"

Adding tools

1. Add the tool entry to mise.toml
2. Run mise lock to generate the cross-platform lockfile
3. Run nu mise-lazybox.nu to regenerate stubs

The stub generator reads the lockfile and produces a shell wrapper + TOML manifest (with platform URLs and checksums) for each binary, including Alpine/musl variants where needed.

Building

docker build --target lazybox -t bonisoft3/lazybox .

Available targets:

• lazybox — the portable toolbox overlay (default, based on Alpine)
• nubox — extends lazybox with Nushell and mise activated (based on wolfi-base for glibc compatibility)