diff --git a/.devcontainer/swift/Dockerfile b/.devcontainer/swift/Dockerfile
index e597a56e083..9b43eaf4f34 100644
--- a/.devcontainer/swift/Dockerfile
+++ b/.devcontainer/swift/Dockerfile
@@ -5,4 +5,5 @@ FROM mcr.microsoft.com/vscode/devcontainers/cpp:0-ubuntu-22.04
 
 USER root
 ADD root.sh /tmp/root.sh
+ADD update-codeql.sh /usr/local/bin/update-codeql
 RUN bash /tmp/root.sh && rm /tmp/root.sh
diff --git a/.devcontainer/swift/root.sh b/.devcontainer/swift/root.sh
index 98c64bcfad7..5f9648ce3e8 100644
--- a/.devcontainer/swift/root.sh
+++ b/.devcontainer/swift/root.sh
@@ -17,3 +17,6 @@ curl -fSsL -o /usr/local/bin/bazelisk https://github.com/bazelbuild/bazelisk/rel
 echo "${BAZELISK_DOWNLOAD_SHA} */usr/local/bin/bazelisk" | sha256sum --check -
 chmod 0755 /usr/local/bin/bazelisk
 ln -s bazelisk /usr/local/bin/bazel
+
+# install latest codeql
+update-codeql
diff --git a/.devcontainer/swift/update-codeql.sh b/.devcontainer/swift/update-codeql.sh
new file mode 100755
index 00000000000..2e4990273e6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.devcontainer/swift/update-codeql.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+#!/bin/bash -e
+
+URL=https://github.com/github/codeql-cli-binaries/releases
+LATEST_VERSION=$(curl -L -s -H 'Accept: application/json' $URL/latest | sed -e 's/.*"tag_name":"\([^"]*\)".*/\1/')
+CURRENT_VERSION=v$(codeql version 2>/dev/null | sed -ne 's/.*release \([0-9.]*\)\./\1/p')
+if [[ $CURRENT_VERSION != $LATEST_VERSION ]]; then
+  curl -fSqL -o /tmp/codeql.zip $URL/download/$LATEST_VERSION/codeql-linux64.zip
+  unzip /tmp/codeql.zip -qd /opt
+  rm /tmp/codeql.zip
+  ln -sf /opt/codeql/codeql /usr/local/bin/codeql
+  echo installed version $LATEST_VERSION
+else
+  echo current version $CURRENT_VERSION is up-to-date
+fi
diff --git a/.devcontainer/swift/user.sh b/.devcontainer/swift/user.sh
index 31f727872ba..fbf8aca57a7 100755
--- a/.devcontainer/swift/user.sh
+++ b/.devcontainer/swift/user.sh
@@ -11,5 +11,3 @@ bazel run swift/create-extractor-pack
 #install and set up pre-commit
 python3 -m pip install pre-commit --no-warn-script-location
 $HOME/.local/bin/pre-commit install
-
-cat $(dirname $0)/user_bashrc.sh >> $HOME/.bashrc
diff --git a/.devcontainer/swift/user_bashrc.sh b/.devcontainer/swift/user_bashrc.sh
deleted file mode 100644
index 5b0c9141fa9..00000000000
--- a/.devcontainer/swift/user_bashrc.sh
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,5 +0,0 @@
-# have the codeql binary installed by vscode automatically in PATH
-bin=$(ls $HOME/.vscode-remote/data/User/globalStorage/github.vscode-codeql/*/codeql/codeql -t 2>/dev/null | head -1)
-if [[ -n $bin ]]; then
-  export PATH=$PATH:$(dirname "$bin")
-fi