Can no longer connect to devcontainer after updating to v1.16.5

Google Antigravity
8

I was really frustrated with this issue, too. I spent the better part of the last 2 days trying to find the problem

Had Gemini to summarise the bug, cause and a potential hack until Google fixes this properly
Have still not managed to get Docker in Docker working, though

Hope it helps some of you.

Summary

Antigravity version 1.16.5 fails to connect to dev containers with

forwardSocket/forwardPortsubprocess exit code 127 (“command not found”). The root cause is a path mismatch in thegetRemoteServerNodePathfunction.

Environment

  • Antigravity Version: 1.16.5 (commit 1504c8cc4b34dbfbb4a97ebe954b3da2b5634516)

  • OS: macOS (also likely affects Linux)

  • Container: Debian-based devcontainer (aarch64)

Symptoms

forwarder error: handleClient Error: subprocess terminated immediately with return code 127

WebSocket close with status code 1006

Root Cause

The getRemoteServerNodePath function in antigravity-dev-containers extension constructs an incorrect path to the remote node binary.

The Bug

Location:

antigravity-dev-containers/dist/extension.js→getRemoteServerNodePath()


// Buggy code (deobfuscated):

getRemoteServerNodePath(output) {

const parsed = this.getRemoteServerHomeAndCommitHash(output);

return `${parsed.serverHome}/bin/${parsed.commitHash}/node`;

//                                ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

//                                Missing ideVersion prefix!

}

Expected path: /home/user/.antigravity-server/bin/1.16.5-{commitHash}/node
Actual path constructed: /home/user/.antigravity-server/bin/{commitHash}/node

The server installation script (generateBashInstallScript) installs to:

SERVER_DIR="$SERVER_DATA_DIR/bin/$DISTRO_IDE_VERSION-$DISTRO_ID"

# e.g., .antigravity-server/bin/1.16.5-1504c8cc4b34.../

But getRemoteServerNodePath omits the $DISTRO_IDE_VERSION- prefix when reconstructing the path.

Verification

 #Path WITHOUT version prefix - DOES NOT EXIST

docker exec <container> test -f ~/.antigravity-server/bin/1504c8cc4b34.../node

# Result: NOT FOUND

# Path WITH version prefix - EXISTS

docker exec <container> test -f ~/.antigravity-server/bin/1.16.5-1504c8cc4b34.../node

# Result: EXISTS

Suggested Fix

Update getRemoteServerNodePath to include the IDE version in the path:

getRemoteServerNodePath(output) {

const parsed = this.getRemoteServerHomeAndCommitHash(output);

if (!parsed) return null;

// Fix: Include ideVersion prefix in path

return `${parsed.serverHome}/bin/${parsed.ideVersion}-${parsed.commitHash}/node`;

}

getRemoteServerHomeAndCommitHash(output) {

// Update regex to capture ideVersion as well

const match = output.match(/logFile==(.+?\/\.[^\/]+)\/\.([a-f0-9]{40}(?:-dev)?)\.log==/);

if (!match) return null;

// Also parse ideVersion from the output

const ideVersionMatch = output.match(/ideVersion==([^=]+)==/);

return {

        serverHome: match[1],

        commitHash: match[2],

        ideVersion: ideVersionMatch ? ideVersionMatch[1] : this.getIdeVersion()

    };

}

Workaround

Add this to your devcontainer’s

postCreate command to create symlinks:

# Antigravity server symlink workaround

# Bug: Antigravity looks for node at .../bin/{commit}/node

# but server installs to .../bin/{version}-{commit}/node

(

	SERVER_DIR="$HOME/.antigravity-server/bin"

	mkdir -p "$SERVER_DIR"

while true; do

for dir in "$SERVER_DIR"/*-*; do

if [ -d "$dir" ]; then

				dirname=$(basename "$dir")

				commit="${dirname#*-}"

				symlink="$SERVER_DIR/$commit"

if [ ! -e "$symlink" ]; then

					ln -s "$dir" "$symlink" 2>/dev/null &&

						echo "Antigravity workaround: Created symlink $commit -> $dirname"

fi

fi

done

		sleep 5

done

) >/dev/null 2>&1 &

For an existing container, run manually:

docker exec -u <user> <container> ln -s \

~/.antigravity-server/bin/1.16.5-<commit> \

~/.antigravity-server/bin/<commit>

Discovered on 2026-02-06. Affects Antigravity 1.16.5. Previous versions may not be affected if they used a different path structure.

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