Start, stop, reconnect

A session starts with devcapsule project run in your project directory and ends when the IDE exits. While it runs, a browser tab shows the capsule's desktop.

Start

Run devcapsule project run from the project directory (or ~/.local/bin/devcapsule project run if ~/.local/bin is not yet on PATH):

devcapsule project run

The launcher materializes any missing image layers, starts the container, and prints per-run URLs on 127.0.0.1, each carrying a random token generated for this launch:

Contained display: http://127.0.0.1:PORT/vnc.html?... (when the session uses the contained desktop rather than host X11 passthrough).
Web console: http://127.0.0.1:PORT/?token=... on base recipe 11 or newer; see The web console.

One page opens automatically in your default browser once its listener is ready—the desktop when the session has a contained desktop, or the web console otherwise—and the other link stays printed in the terminal. If no browser tab opens, copy and paste the full URL yourself. Every run selects available loopback ports and generates new tokens; treat the printed URLs as private keys to the live session.

Reconnect

Closing the browser tab leaves the container, the IDE, and every terminal or agent inside it running. Reopen the printed desktop or console URL in your browser and you are back where you left off.

Running devcapsule project run a second time in the same checkout does not print or recover a running session's URL, so keep the launcher terminal open or keep its printed links handy while you work.

Stop

Inside the IDE: choose File → Exit (or File → Quit). The capsule shuts down cleanly and Docker removes the container.
In the launcher terminal: press Ctrl+C once. The launcher forwards the interrupt to the capsule's supervisor, waits for the container to stop, and prints the session outcome together with the host paths of the session's log files. Pressing Ctrl+C a second time stops waiting and prints the docker stop command to run if the container has not exited yet.
From another host terminal: find the container with docker ps (named pycharm-isolated-<user>-<timestamp> by default, or the name you gave devcapsule project run --name NAME) and run docker stop CONTAINER_NAME. Inside the capsule, $DEVCAPSULE_CONTAINER_NAME and devcapsule project info also show the running container's name.

For what survives container removal, see What persists. To run two projects at once—or two checkouts of the same repository—see Several projects.