Getting Started
OpenRig is a local control plane for Claude Code and Codex teams. It runs a daemon and SQLite database on your machine, launches ordinary tmux-backed agent sessions, records their state, and gives you one CLI for booting, inspecting, and restoring the team.
What OpenRig Does
Start with product-team, a real product-development rig, instead of inventing a team from scratch. rig up product-team boots the shipped starter, wires its seats together, gives each one its startup context, and records the team as a rig you can inspect, shut down, and bring back by name.
# Install the CLI npm install -g @openrig/cli # Prepare this machine for local agent teams rig setup # Boot the hero starter rig up product-team # Inspect the running team rig status rig ps --nodes rig workspace doctor # Open the local UI rig ui open
product-team is the fuller starter: 7 seats, 4 Claude and 3 Codex, with an orchestration HA pair plus development and review pods. Because 4 Claude seats run at once, single-plan users should expect provider throttling, and conveyor is the light-footprint option with 2 Claude seats.
rig specs preview conveyor rig up conveyor
conveyor is the smallest shippable software factory, one command. It's still a real 4-seat starter, 2 Claude and 2 Codex: intake, planning, build, and review seats move work through a visible handoff path.
OpenRig's lifecycle is easier to understand when the teardown handoff and restore path are shown together.
Two Users, Always Together
Directs the work. Decides what to build, which agents to spin up, when to snapshot. Watches the operator view. Steps in when something needs a judgment call.
Drives the CLI. Runs rig up,rig ps,rig restore. Reads error messages, adapts, retries. The CLI is designed for this user - a 10x staff engineer at the terminal.
The relationship: Human directs agent. Agent drives CLI/UI. System is honest to both levels - the agent needs accurate error messages, the human needs accurate dashboard state.
Core Concepts
What Ships In The Library
The spec library is part of the product surface, not just a folder on disk. Operators can inspect what ships with OpenRig, preview a topology, and boot from proven examples instead of starting every rig from scratch.
That makes the CLI documentation useful for both onboarding and reuse: you can point an agent at the library and tell it to start from an existing pattern.
Browse reusable rigs and agents directly from the terminal.
Install
npm install -g @openrig/cli rig setup rig up product-team rig status rig ps --nodes rig workspace doctor rig ui open
rig setup checks the local machine and reports what it changed or couldn't change. rig up product-team boots the starter. rig ps --nodes shows every running seat. rig workspace doctor checks whether the local workspace is ready for agent work.
# Shut the rig down and bring it back rig ps rig down product-team rig up product-team
rig ps is a fleet glance. rig down product-team snapshots the team and stops it. rig up product-team brings it back by name from that snapshot.
`rig doctor` is the fastest way to confirm that local prerequisites are actually in place.
Product Vocabulary
A handful of words name the things you work with day to day. The first group is the topology: what a rig is made of and how you run it. The second group is the coordination layer: how a fleet of agents passes work around without losing it. These are first-class product surfaces, not internal plumbing; the Taxonomy page defines the full set.