is there a way to inspect the contents of a pants container. the file that I'm including as a resource doesnt seem to be available or findable.

By container, do you mean sandbox? https://www.pantsbuild.org/stable/docs/using-pants/troubleshooting-common-issues#debug-tip-inspect-the-sandbox-with---keep-sandboxes Alternatively, the BUILD meta can be viewed using

pants peek [target]