GPU-Ready AI Devbox Docker Image on Runpod (PyTorch 2.8 + CUDA 12.8)

Melvin Vivas · X post · 2026-09-03 · Open on X

Topics: AI Dev Tools & Productivity, LLMOps, Deployment & Monitoring · Level: intermediate

Summary

The creator shares a free Docker image ("ai-devbox") for GPU development. It is built on the official Runpod PyTorch 2.8 + CUDA 12.8 template and comes with AI coding agents and GPU tools already installed. Use it to spin up a ready-to-code GPU machine for running local models without setting everything up by hand.

Key points

• Base: the official Runpod PyTorch 2.8 + CUDA 12.8 template.
• Pre-installed coding agents: Codex, Claude Code, Pi, Grok, Cursor (CLI) and herdr.
• Also includes the Hugging Face CLI for pulling models and datasets.
• nvtop is included for watching GPU usage.
• The image is on Docker Hub under melvindave. The caption link was cut off and looked broken; the full path appears to be melvindave/ai-devbox.
• The creator built it for his own use and shared it publicly.

Resources mentioned

• ai-devbox (melvindave/ai-devbox) · tool · hub.docker.com · free
  The creator's Docker image with PyTorch, CUDA, JupyterLab and coding-agent CLIs already installed, for ML work.
  Also in: AI DevBox v1.3.0: a GPU-ready Docker image with coding-agent CLIs (Melvin Vivas on X · notes), Docker image with coding agents pre-installed on a CUDA + PyTorch base (Melvin Vivas on X · notes)
• Runpod · tool · x.com · paid
  GPU cloud platform for running, training and serving AI models; Flash deploys workloads to it.
  Also in: AI DevBox v1.3.0: a GPU-ready Docker image with coding-agent CLIs (Melvin Vivas on X · notes), Why LLM data agents need solid data foundations (Runpod) (Melvin Vivas on X · notes), Docker image with coding agents pre-installed on a CUDA + PyTorch base (Melvin Vivas on X · notes), GPU devbox Docker image with coding agents on Runpod (Melvin Vivas on X · notes) and 5 more
• PyTorch · tool · pytorch.org · free · recommended by both Bashiri Smith & Melvin Vivas
  Deep-learning framework. Its built-in scaled dot-product attention (SDP) was the baseline in this benchmark.
  Also in: Step-by-Step Roadmap to a $200K+ AI Engineering Role (Bashiri Smith on Facebook · notes), Wannabe vs $200K+ AI Engineer: RAG, Agents, Context and Fine-Tuning Mistakes (Bashiri Smith on Facebook · notes), AI DevBox v1.3.0: a GPU-ready Docker image with coding-agent CLIs (Melvin Vivas on X · notes), Docker image with coding agents pre-installed on a CUDA + PyTorch base (Melvin Vivas on X · notes) and 5 more
• CUDA · tool · developer.nvidia.com · free
  NVIDIA's GPU computing platform, needed for GPU-accelerated deep learning.
  Also in: AI DevBox v1.3.0: a GPU-ready Docker image with coding-agent CLIs (Melvin Vivas on X · notes), Reusable GPU devbox: PyTorch/CUDA plus six coding agents (Melvin Vivas on X · notes), Jensen Huang on NVIDIA's Long-Term Commitment to Open Nemotron Models (Melvin Vivas on X · notes)
• OpenAI Codex · tool · openai.com · paid
  OpenAI's coding agent. In the diagram it writes code, fixes review findings and drives the build loop. The creator also used it to make this video.
  Also in: An agent bot that installs and drives Codex on its own (Melvin Vivas on X · notes), Asking a Coder bot to install Codex (Melvin Vivas on X · notes), Sign in with ChatGPT: Setting Usage Limits for Each App (Melvin Vivas on X · notes), Codex Cloud Environments Must Be Saved & Published Before Use (Melvin Vivas on X · notes) and 240 more
• Claude Code · tool · code.claude.com · paid · recommended by both Bashiri Smith & Melvin Vivas
  Build agents and pipelines from the terminal; the guide's main agentic coding tool.
  Also in: Create Claude Code Plugins with /plugin-authoring (Melvin Vivas on X · notes), Claude Code mods: customize behavior and UI with plugins (Melvin Vivas on X · notes), AI Engineer Roadmap Overview: From ML Foundations to RAG, Agents & Ops (Bashiri Smith on Facebook · notes), SkillsBento: Free Plugin Marketplace for Codex and Claude Code (Melvin Vivas on X · notes) and 101 more
• Pi · tool · x.com · free
  A customizable coding agent that can be extended through its Extensions API and connected to several model providers.
  Also in: Sign in with ChatGPT: Setting Usage Limits for Each App (Melvin Vivas on X · notes), Pi reaches v1.0 (Melvin Vivas on X · notes), Claude Code mods: customize behavior and UI with plugins (Melvin Vivas on X · notes), Customizing Your Coding Setup with Pi Coding Agent Extensions (Melvin Vivas on X · notes) and 39 more
• Grok · tool · x.com · free
  xAI's AI assistant. Here it is used as a terminal coding agent that also runs with the 'agent' alias.
  Also in: OpenAI Dots: Agents Inside ChatGPT That Debug, Fix, and Open PRs (Melvin Vivas on X · notes), Grok Team Bots: Shared AI Teammates in Slack and Grok (Melvin Vivas on X · notes), Cue by Manus: A New Rival to the Grok Bot on X (Melvin Vivas on X · notes), How to Grow an X (Twitter) Account: 9 Practical Tips from Melvin Vivas (Melvin Vivas on X · notes) and 14 more
• Cursor · tool · x.com · free · recommended by both Bashiri Smith & Melvin Vivas
  AI-native code editor (VS Code with AI built in).
  Also in: GLM 5.3 and GLM 5.3 Flash now in Cursor (Melvin Vivas on X · notes), Grok Bot Can Now Hand Off Coding Tasks to Cursor (Melvin Vivas on X · notes), Why Plan Mode Still Matters in AI Coding Assistants (Codex, Claude, Cursor) (Melvin Vivas on X · notes), Why Plan Mode Still Matters in AI Coding Agents (Codex, Claude, Cursor) (Melvin Vivas on X · notes) and 121 more
• herdr · tool · x.com · check price
  A runtime that keeps real terminals open for coding agents on a local or rented machine, so agent sessions keep running when you disconnect.
  Also in: Terminal Tool Recommendation: herdr (Melvin Vivas on X · notes), herdr 0.9.0: Control Agents Across Multiple Machines (Melvin Vivas on X · notes), GPU devbox Docker image with coding agents on Runpod (Melvin Vivas on X · notes), Running Codex Inside a Runpod GPU Instance (Melvin Vivas on X · notes) and 7 more
• Hugging Face · website · x.com · free · recommended by both Bashiri Smith & Melvin Vivas
  Platform for hosting and finding ML models, datasets and papers. The quoted post says LocateAnything was trending there.
  Also in: Using an ML agent to train an open-source TTS model on your voice (Melvin Vivas on X · notes), Deploy Open-Source Models with Hugging Face Inference Endpoints (Melvin Vivas on X · notes), Deploying Qwen3.8 27B on Hugging Face Inference Endpoints (Melvin Vivas on X · notes), Using Hugging Face credits: Jobs, Inference Endpoints and Open Models (Melvin Vivas on X · notes) and 38 more
• nvtop · tool · github.com · free
  An open-source, top-style monitor for GPU usage in the terminal.
  Also in: GPU devbox Docker image with coding agents on Runpod (Melvin Vivas on X · notes), Monitor GPU Usage With nvtop Instead of nvidia-smi (Melvin Vivas on X · notes)

Try this

• Pull the ai-devbox image (melvindave/ai-devbox on Docker Hub) to get a ready-made GPU dev environment.
• Build your own GPU devbox Docker image on a Runpod PyTorch/CUDA template, with your favourite coding agents and monitoring tools pre-installed.