How do I edit a file after I shell to a Docker container?

As in the comments, there's no default editor set - strange - the $EDITOR environment variable is empty. You can log in into a container with:

docker exec -it <container> bash

And run:

apt-get update
apt-get install vim

Or use the following Dockerfile:

FROM  confluent/postgres-bw:0.1

RUN ["apt-get", "update"]
RUN ["apt-get", "install", "-y", "vim"]

Docker images are delivered trimmed to the bare minimum - so no editor is installed with the shipped container. That's why there's a need to install it manually.

EDIT

I also encourage you to read my post about the topic.

If you don't want to add an editor just to make a few small changes (e.g., change the Tomcat configuration), you can just use:

docker cp <container>:/path/to/file.ext .

which copies it to your local machine (to your current directory). Then edit the file locally using your favorite editor, and then do a

docker cp file.ext <container>:/path/to/file.ext

to replace the old file.