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BCDock Docs

BCDock is a managed Business Central sandbox platform. Two equally first-class ways in:

  • Portal — point-and-click for consultants, trainers, and sales engineers. Sign up, pick a BC version + region, click create.
  • CLI — bcdock for developers, CI pipelines, and AI agents. The same Platform API the portal uses.

This site is the developer / agent / ops reference. For pricing and signup go to bcdock.io; for the running app go to app.bcdock.io.

Where to start

  • Use the portal

    Sign in, pick a BC version, click create. No CLI required.

    → Portal quickstart

  • Use the CLI

    curl ... | sh, then bcdock auth login, then bcdock env create --wait.

    → CLI quickstart

  • Integrate an agent

    Set BCDOCK_TOKEN, point Claude / Copilot at the CLI, ship a working AL extension end-to-end.

    → Agent quickstart

Common scenarios

Pick the closest match to what you're trying to do:

  • Spin up a demo for a client

    Click create in the portal, get an HTTPS URL in ~7-15 minutes, hand the link to the prospect.

    → Portal quickstart

  • Develop and ship an AL extension

    Four CLI verbs: pull symbols, compile, publish, generate launch.json. Works from any terminal, no VS Code required.

    → AL extension loop

  • Run a training cohort

    Provision N student envs ahead of class; hibernate between sessions so the cost only counts hours actually used.

    → Hibernation · → CLI quickstart

  • PR-per-branch environments in CI

    GitHub Actions creates a fresh env per pull request, runs tests against it, hibernates between pushes, deletes on close.

    → GitHub Actions guide

  • Drive BCDock from Claude / Copilot

    Set BCDOCK_TOKEN, point your agent at the bcdock CLI. Provision, compile, publish, verify, hibernate - all from natural-language prompts.

    → Agent quickstart · → Claude Code patterns

  • Test across BC versions

    Spin up envs at multiple versions in parallel, compile and publish to each, diff the results. Cheap to leave hibernated between rounds.

    → BC versions · → Claude Code parallel pattern

CLI reference

What BCDock is — and isn't

BCDock manages environments (BC Docker containers) running on pools (Azure VMs we operate). One pool hosts 2–9 environments. We never stop pools; we hibernate environments to blob storage when you don't need them, and resume on demand.

It is not Business Central SaaS. It is a sandbox infrastructure for development, testing, training, demos, and CI — explicitly not for production data. Honest comparison: reference/limitations.

Audience

If you're a:

  • BC consultant, trainer, or sales engineer — start with the Portal quickstart. For evaluation and pricing, see bcdock.io.
  • Developer or DevOps engineer — start with the CLI quickstart. Every portal action has a CLI verb against the same Platform API.
  • Integrating an AI agent that runs BC code — start with the Agent quickstart. Set BCDOCK_TOKEN from app.bcdock.io/profile/api-keys and point Claude or Copilot at bcdock.