Use cacheImageName for local development environments

[frottke]

Summary

Use the existing cacheImageName setting when creating a local development environment.

CreateDevEnv currently passes an empty imageName to Run-AlPipeline, regardless of the configured cacheImageName. As a result, local development environments cannot use the cached Business Central images already supported by AL-Go and BcContainerHelper.

Problem

When imageName is empty, BcContainerHelper creates the container from the generic Business Central image and installs Business Central from the selected artifacts during every container creation.

When a configured image name is passed, BcContainerHelper can create or reuse an artifact-specific image. Subsequent container creation can then use the prepared image instead of repeating the Business Central installation.

A local comparison demonstrated the difference:

With imageName set to my

BcContainerHelper found and reused the existing artifact-specific image:

ArtifactUrl and ImageName specified
Image my:onprem-28.3.52162.52222-de already exists
Using image my:onprem-28.3.52162.52222-de
Creating container erp-ci from image my:onprem-28.3.52162.52222-de

The Business Central installation step was not executed again.

The complete container creation took 237 seconds in this run.

With an empty imageName

BcContainerHelper used the generic image:

Using image mcr.microsoft.com/businesscentral:ltsc2025
Creating container erp-ci from image mcr.microsoft.com/businesscentral:ltsc2025
Using artifactUrl https://bcartifacts-exdbf9fwegejdqak.b02.azurefd.net/onprem/28.3.52162.52222/de
Installing Business Central
Installing from artifacts

The Business Central installation alone took 209 seconds, and the complete container creation took 446 seconds in this run.

These timings are an observed example rather than a controlled benchmark, but the logs demonstrate the behavioral difference: using the cached image avoids repeating the Business Central installation when a matching image already exists.

Change

For local development environments, pass the existing cacheImageName setting to Run-AlPipeline instead of always passing an empty value.

             $sharedFolder = ""
             if ($project) {
                 $sharedFolder = $baseFolder
             }

+            $imageName = ""
+            if ($kind -eq "local") {
+                $imageName = $settings.cacheImageName
+            }
+
             Run-AlPipeline @runAlPipelineParams `
                 -accept_insiderEula:$accept_insiderEula `
                 -vsixFile $settings.vsixFile `
                 -pipelinename $workflowName `
-                -imageName "" `
+                -imageName $imageName `
                 -memoryLimit $settings.memoryLimit `

Configuration

The existing AL-Go default remains unchanged:

{
  "cacheImageName": "my"
}

Users who want to retain the current local development behavior can disable cached image creation in .AL-Go/localDevEnv.settings.json:

{
  "cacheImageName": ""
}

Expected behavior

• Local development environments use the configured cacheImageName.
• With the default value my, BcContainerHelper creates or reuses an artifact-specific image.
• When a matching image already exists, container creation does not repeat the Business Central installation from artifacts.
• Setting cacheImageName to an empty string preserves the current behavior.
• Cloud development environment behavior remains unchanged.

✅ Checklist

• Update RELEASENOTES.md

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

Uses cacheImageName for faster local development container creation.

Changes:

• Passes the configured image name for local environments.
• Keeps cloud behavior unchanged.
• Documents the behavior in release notes.

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 2 out of 2 changed files in this pull request and generated 3 comments.

File	Description
Actions/AL-Go-Helper.ps1	Forwards cacheImageName to local pipelines.
RELEASENOTES.md	Documents cached local images and opt-out.

[aholstrup1]

I don't see any existing pester tests for CreateDevEnv. Since this is a small enough addition to that, feel free to omit this.

[aholstrup1]

Agree with copilot here. Would be good to add a note about this in the settings.md

[aholstrup1]

Overall looks good to me 👍 Just a few comments to resolve

[aholstrup1]

I don't see any existing pester tests for CreateDevEnv. Since this is a small enough addition to that, feel free to omit this.

[aholstrup1]

Agree with copilot here. Would be good to add a note about this in the settings.md