Techniques for automated application footprint discovery for application migration to containers are described. A snapshot of an application instance can be stored, the snapshot including the application instance and resources used by the application instance at runtime. The application instance can be run in an intermediate virtual machine, the intermediate virtual machine including at least one interceptor. At least one dependency of the application instance can be determined using the at least one interceptor while the application instance executes on the intermediate virtual machine. A template including the at least one dependency can be created and an application environment can be generated using the template.