How developers use Rig
Developers use Rig when local development is more than one terminal tab: morning boot of a whole stack, Laravel plus Vite plus a queue, WordPress beside a Node app, or an AI editor that needs to see what is actually running. Freelancers share a Live Link instead of deploying a staging box for a five-minute client review — see /for-freelancers. Solo developers replace terminal archaeology with one board and MCP — see /for-solo-developers. Full stack work boots frontend, API, database, and workers together — see /full-stack-local-dev. Studios keep a catalog of projects across Macs and teleport a working setup without copying the repo to a cloud VM. Rig does not replace Docker Desktop, Herd, or Valet; it is the control plane around those tools. Typical jobs: reclaim a stolen port, read a merged log after a crash, restart only the dead sidecar, and let Cursor diagnose from live health instead of guessing.