diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 05e53b63..b4d3ae2e 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -2,3 +2,4 @@
*.zwc.old
modules/*/cache.zsh
contrib
+.container
diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..db3ca686
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -0,0 +1,24 @@
+FROM alpine as prezto-devel
+LABEL maintainer="h@hlo.mx"
+RUN apk --no-cache update && apk upgrade && \
+ apk add util-linux pciutils usbutils coreutils binutils\
+ findutils grep man man-pages mdocml-apropos less less-doc \
+ make grep zsh zsh-vcs zsh-zftp zsh-calendar zsh-doc git \
+ vim git-zsh-completion tmux tmux-zsh-completion tree \
+ docker-zsh-completion
+RUN addgroup prezto && adduser -D prezto -G prezto -S /bin/zsh
+WORKDIR /home/prezto
+USER prezto
+RUN cd /home/prezto && mkdir src
+COPY . src
+RUN cp src/Makefile .
+RUN make .clone
+RUN make src .homercs
+RUN rm Makefile
+# ENTRYPOINT ["/bin/zsh", "-"]
+# CMD ["/bin/zsh","-l","-o","verbose","-o","xtrace","-o","sourcetrace"]
+CMD ["/bin/zsh","-l"]
+
+
+
+
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
new file mode 100755
index 00000000..5507073e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -0,0 +1,113 @@
+#!/usr/bin/make shebang
+# _ ____ _
+# _ __ _ __ ___ ___| |_ ___ | _ \ ___ ___| | _____ _ __
+# | '_ \| '__/ _ \_ / __/ _ \ _____| | | |/ _ \ / __| |/ / _ \ '__|
+# | |_) | | | __// /| || (_) |_____| |_| | (_) | (__| < __/ |
+# | .__/|_| \___/___|\__\___/ |____/ \___/ \___|_|\_\___|_|
+# |_|
+# h@h-lo.me 20191025 004745 -0700 PDT 1571989665 d(-_- )b...
+# This makefile automates image building and container management
+# for easy development of prezto and prezto-plugins without messing
+# up your current configuration. Prezto is installed fresh on an
+# alpine container, where you may add your edits
+#
+#######################################################################
+# REPO and IMG define the TAG for our image. this is how it gets named
+# when pushed to dockerhum. REPO should be your dockerhub username
+# IMG would be nice if its related to the project.
+REPO = hlecuanda
+IMG = prezto-dev
+TAG = $(REPO)/$(IMG)
+# ALLCODE recirds all code files so we can have the docker image
+# depend on all of them. if any file changes, the image gets rebuilt
+ALLCODE != find . -type f | grep -vEe '^\./\.+|*.md'
+RUNCOMS != ls runcoms
+# The context is the current directory. this is important if you have
+# a buildserver, v.gr on gitlab or google cloud. its still needed for
+# local builds. so don't touch this, unless you know what you're doing
+CONTEXT = .
+# All reciipes on this makefile are zsh scripts, not bash or sh
+# scripts, so we don't have to be context-switching
+SHELL = zsh
+# This removes the default build rules for gmake's built in suffixes
+# when debugging the Makefile, output is a lot more readable, plus
+# if you're not making C programs, it just makes sense to avoid
+# mistery bugs
+.SUFFIXES =
+
+# We don't want to fail recipies on error for the targets if .IGNORE
+.IGNORE: clean realclean ;
+
+# These targets don't create files and are defined for convenience.
+# note that other targets do create real files which are used to
+# determine the state of the build
+.PHONY: default run clean realclean ;
+
+# an empty recipe, to avoid expensive operations if we "make" by
+# mistake. it can be made to depend on another target and it will
+# become the target of a "make" call with no arguments, vg.r:
+# default: image; results in "make" and "make image" doing the same
+default: ;
+
+# a user callable target, depends on .container/image whiech records
+# the timestamp of the last successfuly built image
+image: .container/image ;
+
+# we declare .container/image to depend on $(ALLCODE) which contains
+# all files in the distribution. thus, if ANY file changes, it makes
+# our image obsolete and will be re-made on next make command
+.container/image: $(ALLCODE)
+ docker build -t $(TAG) $(CONTEXT)
+ [[ ! -d .container ]] && mkdir .container || :
+ touch $@
+
+# NOTE: The following targets ( .homercs clone and .clone ) are
+# run inside the container while building a container image. They are
+# called from the Dockerfile when you "make image". .homercs creates
+# the dotfiles on our home directory and depends on .clone, so .clone
+# should be made before .homercs. We're spelling these out explicitly
+# for clarity instead of using Makefile enchantments that would make
+# this a 2 line recipe
+.homercs: .clone
+ ln -s .zprezto/runcoms/zshenv /home/prezto/.zshenv
+ ln -s .zprezto/runcoms/zprofile /home/prezto/.zprofile
+ ln -s .zprezto/runcoms/zshrc /home/prezto/.zshrc
+ ln -s .zprezto/runcoms/zpreztorc /home/prezto/.zpreztorc
+ ln -s .zprezto/runcoms/zlogin /home/prezto/.zlogin
+ ln -s .zprezto/runcoms/zlogout /home/prezto/.zlogout
+ touch $@
+
+# clones the prezto repository we have copied from the build context
+# into the container, into a .zprezto directory, as the installation
+# instructions recommend.
+.clone:
+ git clone --recursive src .zprezto
+ touch $@
+
+# This runs an interactive (-it) ephemeral (--rm) container named
+# $(IMG) created from the image stored at $(TAG) it is made to depend
+# on container/image so that it checks whether image is up to # date.
+# Given that image depends on $(ALLCODE), calling "make run" will use
+# the latest image, unless any code file hasa changed in which case,
+# the image is rebuilt and then run.
+run: .container/image
+ docker run -it --rm -h $(IMG) --name $(IMG) $(TAG)
+
+# Removes the current container and image, so we can build a new one
+# from scratch. If you want a real clean slate, then "make realclean"
+clean:
+ docker container rm $(TAG)
+ docker image rm $(TAG)
+ rm -fv .container/*
+
+# Deep cleaning, will remove dangling (intermediate build) images
+# and containers for which a final image or container cannot be found
+# (i.e has been deleted by clean or removed after usage for ephemeral
+# containers. Run every once in a while.
+realclean:
+ $(MAKE) clean
+ docker rmi $(TAG)
+ docker container prune
+ docker image prune
+
+# vim: set ft=make sw=2 tw=7 fdm=manual noet :
diff --git a/container-README.md b/container-README.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..60108f21
--- /dev/null
+++ b/container-README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,94 @@
+# Prezto Docker Container
+
+This branch contains a Dockerfile and a Makefile that hopefully may
+prove helpful for prezto development.
+
+The idea is to have a totally independent and isolated environemnet
+in which to test changes to either prezto-core or any plugin that you
+may be working on, **without disrupting your environment**, thus enabling
+automated testing and even continuous integration.
+
+This is a proof of concept, it may not be even a good idea to have
+this on the main prezto repository. on the other hand, the container
+image should depend on the code, so if the team finds this to be a
+useful tool, there are choices to be made in that respect. My
+intention is to introduce this as a helpful tool for development and
+for new users to try prezto easely
+
+Here is a screencast showing what the container can do so far
+
+[](https://asciinema.org/a/277054)
+
+The container is a basic install of [alpine linux](https://alpinelinux.org) so the download
+is reasonably small at around 200M, since debian based images can
+weigh in around 1.5G.
+
+On the container we have a few utilities and additional software that
+prezto has core support for, (tmux, make, etc) and you can try it i
+easily by running:
+
+```bash
+ docker pull hlecuanda/prezto-dev:latest
+```
+
+once you have the image, create a container from it:
+
+```bash
+ docker run -it --rm -h prezto hlecuanda/prezto-dev:latest
+```
+
+That will create an interactive (`--it`) ephemeral container (`--rm`)
+whose hostname is prezto (`-h prezto`) based on the aforementioned
+imag. you should be sitting at the plain sorin prompt in a brand new
+prezto instance.
+
+A development and testing workflow can be achieved by mounting a
+project's directory on to the image's filesystem:
+
+```bash
+ cd /path/to/project/root
+ docker run -it --rm -h prezto \
+ -v $(pwd):/home/prezto/.zprezto/modules/${:-$(pwd):t} \
+ hlecuanda/prezto-dev:latest
+```
+
+This will mount the current directory on the container's filesystem,
+you can develop on your own machine and environnment, and test your
+changes running on the container, your actual source will already be
+in-place on prezto's directory hierarchy, as if it was just cloned
+recursively (v.gr for modules with extenral dependencies)
+
+Keep in mind that the containers created in this fashion are ephemeral,
+so anything you write on the containers filesystem will be lost,
+unless you remove the `--rm` option like so:
+
+```bash
+ cd /path/to/project/root
+ docker run -it -h prezto --name prezto \
+ -v $(pwd):/home/prezto/.zprezto/modules/${:-$(pwd):t} \
+ hlecuanda/prezto-dev:latest
+```
+This will create a container named prezto, (`--name prezto`) with it's
+hostname set to prezto also (`-h prezto`) that will retain changes
+made to it's filesystem. When you detach, the container willi stop and
+you can spinit up again using:
+
+```bash
+ docker start -ai prezto
+```
+
+Containers started this way will remember the volume mounts they were
+created with, so the project directory we previously mounted with
+`-v` on the `docker run` command, will be ready on the image.
+
+I have found epehermeral containers to be most useful since you get an
+untainted, pristine environment for testing every time you spin up the
+container.
+
+Since the docker commands can be a bit verbose, the included Makefile
+automates some of the frequent steps in the workflow, although it can
+be replaced by [a shell function](https://gist.github.com/hlecuanda/78a6a39877c9753230a11c2d8832f4b6)
+quite easily.
+
+
+hope this turns out to be useful.
diff --git a/prezto-container.zsh b/prezto-container.zsh
new file mode 100755
index 00000000..de290ade
--- /dev/null
+++ b/prezto-container.zsh
@@ -0,0 +1,91 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env zsh
+ local opts withvals
+
+ zmodload zsh/zutil || { <<< 'Requires zparseopts'; false; return }
+
+ [ -z $commands[docker] ] && { <<< 'Requires Docker'; false; return }
+
+ zparseopts -D -E -M -a opts -A withvals - \
+ h=hlp -help=h \
+ i: -image=i \
+ N: -name=N \
+ n -dry-run=n \
+ p -persistant=p \
+ r -run=r \
+ -zdotdir: \
+ -zpreztodir:
+
+ if (( $#hlp == 1 )) ; then
+ <<-USAGE
+ ${0}: create an ephemeral prezto container using docker
+
+ usage:
+ ${0} [options] -- [addtl-args]
+
+ options:
+ -h, --help : print this message
+ -p, --persistant : make a persistant container
+ -N NAME, --name=NAME : set container name to NAME (default: prezto)
+ -n, --dry-run : see what command would be run without doing so
+ -r 'CMD' --run 'CMD' : run 'CMD' on the container (quote CMD)
+ -i IMG, --image=IMG : create container from image IMG (default hlecuanda/prezto-dev)
+ -zdotdir=PATH : use dotfiles from local PATH
+ -zpreztodir : override default prezto to local PATH
+
+ example:
+ ${0} -n myruncoms -zdotdir=$HOME
+
+ creates an ephemeral container named myruncoms using
+ dotfiles found in ${HOME}
+
+ ${0} -n illbeback -p
+
+ creates a persistant container named illbeback if such
+ container exists, then startit and attach to it
+
+ ${0} -n ivebeenback -r 'apk add python'
+
+ spins up the a container named ivebeenback, and runs
+ the comand 'apk add python'. the container stops when
+ done.
+
+ USAGE
+ fi
+
+ local image="hlecuanda/prezto-dev"
+ local name="prezto"
+ local persistant="--rm"
+ local zdotdir=""
+ local zpreztodir=""
+ local dockercmd='docker run'
+ local dockerpull=""
+
+ for opt in ${(k)withvals}
+ case $opt in
+ -i)
+ image="$withvals[-i]" ;;
+ -n)
+ local dryrun="print --" ;;
+ -N)
+ name="$withvals[-n]" ;;
+ -p)
+ persistant="" ;;
+ -zdotdir)
+ zdotdir="-v ${(qq)withvals[-zdotdir]}:/home/prezto/zdotdir -e 'ZDOTDIR=/home/prezto/zdotdir " ;;
+ -zpreztodir)
+ zpreztodir="-v ${(qq)withvals[-zpreztodir]}:/home/prezto/zpreztodir -e 'ZPREZTODIR=/home/prezto/zpreztodir " ;;
+ esac
+
+ docker images \
+ | grep prezto-dev \
+ &>>! /dev/null || dockerpull="docker pull $image && "
+
+ dockercmd="$dryrun $dockerpull $dockercmd $persistant -h $name "
+ dockercmd="$dockercmd -name $name $zdotdir $zpreztodir $image"
+
+ cmd=$(echo $dockercmd | tr -s \ )
+
+ ${(z)cmd}
+
+
+# vim: set ft=zsh sw=2 tw=0 fdm=manual et :