Custom ralphex images for running autonomous AI-assisted development on Java/Maven and Python projects.

• Base for both images: ghcr.io/umputun/ralphex-go:latest (Claude Code, codex, ralphex binary, git, fzf, etc.)
• Java image: OpenJDK 21 + Maven 3.9.9
• Python image: Python 3 + pip + uv + native build toolchain

docker build --pull -t ralphex-java .

Use:

RALPHEX_IMAGE=ralphex-java ralphex-dk docs/plans/your-plan.md

docker build --pull -f Dockerfile.python -t ralphex-python .

Use:

RALPHEX_IMAGE=ralphex-python ralphex-dk docs/plans/your-plan.md

Or with the web dashboard:

RALPHEX_IMAGE=ralphex-python ralphex-dk --serve docs/plans/your-plan.md

• Java image Maven version: edit the MAVEN_VERSION build arg in Dockerfile, then rebuild.
• Python image tooling: edit Dockerfile.python, then rebuild.

Both images currently use ghcr.io/umputun/ralphex-go:latest in the FROM line. To rebuild against the latest upstream base image, pull fresh layers during the build:

docker build --pull -t ralphex-java .
docker build --pull -f Dockerfile.python -t ralphex-python .

If you want a repeatable base version instead of tracking latest, change the FROM line in Dockerfile and Dockerfile.python to a specific upstream tag, then rebuild and smoke-test the images.

docker run --rm ralphex-java java -version
docker run --rm ralphex-java mvn -version
docker run --rm --entrypoint /bin/sh ralphex-python -lc 'python3 --version && pip --version && uv --version'

On macOS, cron jobs that call Docker Desktop need a PATH that includes Docker Desktop's helper binaries, not just the docker CLI path. Without that, builds can fail under cron with docker-credential-desktop lookup errors even though the same command works interactively.

Example:

PATH=/Applications/Docker.app/Contents/Resources/bin:/Applications/Docker.app/Contents/MacOS:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin

Also make sure Docker Desktop is running when the scheduled job fires.

• ralphex documentation
• AGENTS.md — instructions for AI agents working inside this container