diff --git a/.devcontainer/devcontainer-lock.json b/.devcontainer/devcontainer-lock.json
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..b33ff1a703
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.devcontainer/devcontainer-lock.json
@@ -0,0 +1,24 @@
+{
+  "features": {
+    "ghcr.io/devcontainers/features/common-utils:2": {
+      "version": "2.5.9",
+      "resolved": "ghcr.io/devcontainers/features/common-utils@sha256:cb0c4d3c276f157eed17935747e364178d75fee17f55c4e129966f64633deb3a",
+      "integrity": "sha256:cb0c4d3c276f157eed17935747e364178d75fee17f55c4e129966f64633deb3a"
+    },
+    "ghcr.io/devcontainers/features/docker-in-docker:4": {
+      "version": "4.0.0",
+      "resolved": "ghcr.io/devcontainers/features/docker-in-docker@sha256:4fa87399214366e320d489991769c4f3f461e1ffe461f54eea78a41b34945bb5",
+      "integrity": "sha256:4fa87399214366e320d489991769c4f3f461e1ffe461f54eea78a41b34945bb5"
+    },
+    "ghcr.io/devcontainers/features/java:1": {
+      "version": "1.8.1",
+      "resolved": "ghcr.io/devcontainers/features/java@sha256:8157bab2d8d71e40b2f3128c162fab763e2b11038fdd33784549290a5d386b48",
+      "integrity": "sha256:8157bab2d8d71e40b2f3128c162fab763e2b11038fdd33784549290a5d386b48"
+    },
+    "ghcr.io/devcontainers/features/python:1": {
+      "version": "1.8.0",
+      "resolved": "ghcr.io/devcontainers/features/python@sha256:fbcad6955caeecc5ad3f7886baf652e25cba5225a6c4c2287c536de2e5607511",
+      "integrity": "sha256:fbcad6955caeecc5ad3f7886baf652e25cba5225a6c4c2287c536de2e5607511"
+    }
+  }
+}
diff --git a/.devcontainer/devcontainer.json b/.devcontainer/devcontainer.json
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..d0c250eb41
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.devcontainer/devcontainer.json
@@ -0,0 +1,24 @@
+{
+  "name": "SQLMesh Python Dev",
+  "image": "mcr.microsoft.com/devcontainers/base:ubuntu-24.04",
+  "features": {
+    "ghcr.io/devcontainers/features/common-utils:2": {},
+    "ghcr.io/devcontainers/features/python:1": {
+      "version": "3.12"
+    },
+    "ghcr.io/devcontainers/features/java:1": {
+      "version": "21"
+    },
+    "ghcr.io/devcontainers/features/docker-in-docker:4": {}
+  },
+  "postCreateCommand": "bash .devcontainer/post-create-command.sh",
+  "customizations": {
+    "vscode": {
+      "extensions": [
+        "ms-python.python",
+        "ms-python.vscode-pylance"
+      ]
+    }
+  },
+  "remoteUser": "vscode"
+}
diff --git a/.devcontainer/post-create-command.sh b/.devcontainer/post-create-command.sh
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..4ba84850bc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.devcontainer/post-create-command.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+
+# This script is intended to be run by an Ubuntu development container
+
+# Exit immediately if any command returns a non-zero code
+set -e
+
+# Install OS-level dependencies
+
+## Ensure that the Microsoft package repository is available as it is required for msodbcsql18. Note that the repository
+## may have already been added by a development container feature (e.g. docker-in-docker or java).
+if apt-cache policy | grep -q 'packages.microsoft.com'; then
+    echo "Microsoft package repository already present"
+else
+    echo "Microsoft package repository not present, it will be added."
+    
+    # ref: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/connect/odbc/linux-mac/installing-the-microsoft-odbc-driver-for-sql-server
+    curl -sSL -O https://packages.microsoft.com/config/ubuntu/$(grep VERSION_ID /etc/os-release | cut -d '"' -f 2)/packages-microsoft-prod.deb
+    sudo dpkg -i packages-microsoft-prod.deb
+    rm packages-microsoft-prod.deb
+fi
+
+ALL_DEPENDENCIES="libpq-dev netcat-traditional unixodbc-dev default-jdk msodbcsql18"
+sudo apt-get clean && sudo apt-get -y update && sudo ACCEPT_EULA='Y' apt-get -y install $ALL_DEPENDENCIES
+
+# Install Python dependencies
+make install-dev
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/docs/development.md b/docs/development.md
index ff8b250d87..d80ef60689 100644
--- a/docs/development.md
+++ b/docs/development.md
@@ -11,6 +11,22 @@ Before you begin, ensure you have the following installed on your machine. Exact
 * OpenJDK >= 11
 * Python >= 3.9 < 3.13
 
+### Windows Prerequisites
+
+The development environment of SQLMesh depends both on:
+
+* Symbolic links in the repository which, whilst available on Windows, typically require additional permissions for the process running git, and;
+* Some Python functionality (e.g. `SIGUSR1`) that is only available on UNIX systems. Whilst this functionality is gated so shouldn't error on Windows, the development container enables its use.
+
+For the Python functionality, a development container is provided to develop against Ubuntu 24 with Python 3.12.
+
+For symbolic links, you must ensure that when checking out the repository:
+
+* The git configuration `core.symlinks` is set to `true` (this also needs to be done before bind mount, i.e. when the development container is started)
+* The process that git runs as is permitted to create symbolic links. This can typically be done by running git as an administrator, or enabling [developer mode on Windows](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/advanced-settings/developer-mode).
+
+Development containers are supported by [a number of IDEs](https://containers.dev/supporting.html). For developers using VSCode,  [Microsoft has a tutorial on how to use development containers](https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/devcontainers/tutorial).
+
 ## Virtual environment setup
 
 We do recommend using a virtual environment to develop SQLMesh.