Yeah, I wish it were just a docker image up on the hub

That "just" is just your favorite alternative to "npm install". There's nothing "just" about it. Like preferring it was a pip or apt install.

Sure there is. When I’m done looking at it, I delete the Docker image and it’s gone from my system. That’s more effort with npm.

Also, the docker solution works for everything. So whether it’s a node app, or python, or Go, or Ruby... the process is the same.

Getting a docker image to performantly access a local folder across platforms is a huge challenge.

I love docker but it's just not good enough at handling watched folders.

You could create a Docker image that runs `npm install` and upload it to the hub.

Possibly. The announcement is all about the local version, so there's no way to try that out without installing it locally. However, it's the local version of a product that already exists entirely online with no need to `npm install` anything.