diff --git a/.devcontainer/devcontainer.json b/.devcontainer/devcontainer.json
index 226b5e3..75f7591 100644
--- a/.devcontainer/devcontainer.json
+++ b/.devcontainer/devcontainer.json
@@ -24,6 +24,12 @@
   "features": {
     "ghcr.io/devcontainers/features/sshd:1": {
       "version": "latest"
+    },
+    "ghcr.io/devcontainers/features/github-cli:1": {
+      "version": "latest"
+    },
+    "ghcr.io/devcontainers/features/azure-cli:1": {
+      "version": "latest"
     }
   }
 }
diff --git a/.devcontainer/onCreate.sh b/.devcontainer/onCreate.sh
index 1cb26c6..e45485f 100755
--- a/.devcontainer/onCreate.sh
+++ b/.devcontainer/onCreate.sh
@@ -2,30 +2,20 @@
 
 set -e
 
-echo "Installing the GitHub CLI"
-(type -p wget >/dev/null || (sudo apt update && sudo apt-get install wget -y)) \
-  && sudo mkdir -p -m 755 /etc/apt/keyrings \
-        && out=$(mktemp) && wget -nv -O$out https://cli.github.com/packages/githubcli-archive-keyring.gpg \
-        && cat $out | sudo tee /etc/apt/keyrings/githubcli-archive-keyring.gpg > /dev/null \
-  && sudo chmod go+r /etc/apt/keyrings/githubcli-archive-keyring.gpg \
-  && echo "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/githubcli-archive-keyring.gpg] https://cli.github.com/packages stable main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/github-cli.list > /dev/null \
-  && sudo apt update \
-  && sudo apt install gh inotify-tools -y
+echo "Setting up node user home directory and permissions"
+sudo mkdir -p /home/node/.config/vscode-dev-containers
+sudo chown -R node:node /home/node
+sudo chmod 755 /home/node
+sudo chmod -R 755 /home/node/.config
 
-echo "Installing azcopy"
-
-sudo wget -O /usr/local/bin/azcopytar https://aka.ms/downloadazcopy-v10-linux
-sudo tar -xvf /usr/local/bin/azcopytar -C /usr/local/bin/
-sudo rm /usr/local/bin/azcopytar
-azcopy_dir=$(find /usr/local/bin/ -type d -name "azcopy*" | head -n 1)
-sudo mv "$azcopy_dir/azcopy" /usr/local/bin/azcopy
-sudo rm -rf "$azcopy_dir"
+echo "Installing inotify-tools"
+sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y inotify-tools
 
 SCRIPT_DIR="$(cd "$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")" && pwd)"
 "$SCRIPT_DIR/refreshTools.sh"
 
-echo "Pre-starting the server and generating the optimized assets"
-npm run optimize --override
+echo "Installing Node.js dependencies"
+npm install
 
 echo "Installing supervisor"
 sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install -y supervisor
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/.devcontainer/refreshTools.sh b/.devcontainer/refreshTools.sh
index aaaa428..c1e63b6 100755
--- a/.devcontainer/refreshTools.sh
+++ b/.devcontainer/refreshTools.sh
@@ -4,6 +4,12 @@ set -e
 
 echo "Checking for updates to workbench-template from GitHub"
 
+# Ensure jq is installed for JSON parsing
+if ! command -v jq &> /dev/null; then
+    echo "Installing jq for JSON parsing..."
+    sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install -y jq
+fi
+
 WORKSPACE_DIR="/workspaces/spark-template"
 
 MARKER_DIR="/var/lib/spark/.versions"
@@ -12,11 +18,28 @@ TOOLS_MARKER_FILE="$MARKER_DIR/tools"
 
 sudo mkdir -p "$MARKER_DIR"
 
+# Check if TEMPLATE_PAT is set
+if [ -z "$TEMPLATE_PAT" ]; then
+    echo "TEMPLATE_PAT environment variable is not set. Skipping tools update."
+    exit 0
+fi
+
 # Fetch the latest release information
 LATEST_RELEASE=$(curl -s -H "Authorization: token $TEMPLATE_PAT" https://api.github.com/repos/github/spark-template/releases/latest)
 
+# Check if the API call succeeded
+if [ $? -ne 0 ] || [ -z "$LATEST_RELEASE" ]; then
+    echo "Failed to fetch release information from GitHub. Skipping tools update."
+    exit 0
+fi
+
 # Check if marker file exists and has the same release ID
 RELEASE_ID=$(echo "$LATEST_RELEASE" | jq -r '.id')
+if [ "$RELEASE_ID" == "null" ] || [ -z "$RELEASE_ID" ]; then
+    echo "Invalid release data received from GitHub. Skipping tools update."
+    exit 0
+fi
+
 if [ -f "$RELEASE_MARKER_FILE" ] && [ "$(cat "$RELEASE_MARKER_FILE")" == "$RELEASE_ID" ]; then
     echo "Already at the latest release. Skipping download."
     exit 0
@@ -28,6 +51,13 @@ TEMP_DIR=$(mktemp -d)
 cd $TEMP_DIR
 
 DOWNLOAD_URL=$(echo "$LATEST_RELEASE" | jq -r '.assets[0].url')
+if [ "$DOWNLOAD_URL" == "null" ] || [ -z "$DOWNLOAD_URL" ]; then
+    echo "No download URL found in release data. Skipping tools update."
+    cd - >/dev/null
+    rm -rf $TEMP_DIR
+    exit 0
+fi
+
 curl -L -o dist.zip -H "Authorization: token $TEMPLATE_PAT" -H "Accept: application/octet-stream" "$DOWNLOAD_URL"
 
 unzip -o dist.zip
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index ff5966a..bc80ee4 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -11,7 +11,6 @@
         "lint": "eslint .",
         "test": "vitest",
         "test:run": "vitest run",
-        "optimize": "vite optimize",
         "preview": "vite preview",
         "build:pages": "bash ./build-for-gh-pages.sh",
         "predeploy": "npm run build:pages",