A waiting/limbo server while the docker container with the actual server starts about infrared

[Mitch0S]

As far as I know, this would be quite difficult, as for an online-mode server (the limbo one), the proxy would have to be able to encrypt/decrypt packets to and from the client. You would be better off using something live bungeecord in parallel to achieve something like this. Also, I'm not sure how the player handover would work afterwards...

I may be wrong, but from what I can remember, this is correct.

[haveachin]

That would be a nice feature, however, Infrared is currently evolving more into a powerful reverse proxy with security and attack protection features. As of version 2, Infrared will no longer support container control, as it does now. I would recommend using itzg/docker-minecraft-server with it's autostop feature.