diff --git a/.devcontainer/post-create-command.sh b/.devcontainer/post-create-command.sh
index 93796b49..a378d043 100755
--- a/.devcontainer/post-create-command.sh
+++ b/.devcontainer/post-create-command.sh
@@ -2,7 +2,26 @@
 
 set -e  # Exit immediately if a command exits with a non-zero status
 
-cp -n .env-template .env || true
+# Create ../frontend/.env.development if it doesn't exist, based on a template in the root
+if [ ! -f ../frontend/.env.development ]; then
+  cp -n .env-template ../frontend/.env.development || true # Assuming .env-template is in the root
+fi
+
+# Determine VITE_API_HOST based on environment
+if [ -n "$CODESPACES" ]; then
+  # Running in Codespaces
+  CODESPACE_NAME=$(echo "$CODESPACES" | cut -d'-' -f1) # Extract codespace name
+  PUBLIC_API_HOST="https://${CODESPACE_NAME}-7091.${GITHUB_CODESPACES_PORT_FORWARDING_DOMAIN}"
+  echo "Setting VITE_API_HOST for Codespaces: $PUBLIC_API_HOST in ../frontend/.env.development"
+  sed -i "s|VITE_API_HOST=.*|VITE_API_HOST=$PUBLIC_API_HOST|" ../frontend/.env.development
+else
+  # Not running in Codespaces (local devcontainer)
+  DEFAULT_API_HOST="http://localhost:7091"
+  echo "Setting VITE_API_HOST for local dev: $DEFAULT_API_HOST in ../frontend/.env.development"
+  sed -i "s|VITE_API_HOST=.*|VITE_API_HOST=$DEFAULT_API_HOST|" ../frontend/.env.development
+fi
+
+
 mkdir -p model
 if [ ! -d model/all-mpnet-base-v2 ]; then
     wget -q https://d3dg1063dc54p9.cloudfront.net/models/embeddings/mpnet-base-v2.zip -O model/mpnet-base-v2.zip