rigs: your route into OpenRig

OpenRig runs a team of coding agents (Claude Code, Codex and others) side by side in tmux. A local daemon keeps their tasks, messages and state, so the team keeps working across restarts. This skill gets OpenRig installed, gets a team working on what the person wants, and shows how to work with that team from here.

The goal is a team doing the person's work, not just an install. Go through the steps in order and stop early only if the person asks you to. When they say what they want built, give it to OpenRig's operator (step 2) instead of building it yourself.

Tell the person what you're about to run and why before you run it. Don't install system packages or change their machine without a yes. Starting OpenRig and a team writes files: Codex hooks and settings in ~/.codex/config.toml, a discovery skill in ~/.claude/skills and ~/.agents/skills, and, in the repository, managed guidance in AGENTS.md or CLAUDE.md plus the team's skills and plugins. Say so before you start OpenRig (the full list).

1. Install OpenRig, if it isn't installed

• Check first: rig --version. If it prints a version, go to step 2.
• What it needs: macOS or Linux, Node.js 22 or 24, tmux, and Claude Code or Codex signed in. Check only what's missing: node --version, tmux -V, claude auth status or codex login status.
• A check that needs the network (gh auth status, a registry or other fetch) can fail falsely in a sandbox without network access, such as Codex's default one. Re-run that one command with network access before you tell the person to sign in again or fix anything.
• Install: npm install -g @openrig/cli, then rig setup --providers codex (or claude, or both: the harness the person uses). Setup checks Node, tmux and the logins. It installs tmux (with Homebrew, when present) or the chosen harness (with npm) if either is missing, installs Herdr for the OpenRig view unless they decline it (--no-herdr), and adds an OpenRig block to ~/.tmux.conf, so say all of that first. It doesn't start the daemon. Then rig doctor.
• Then go on to step 2: say it's installed and ask what they want worked on, and in which repository. A plain "install OpenRig" includes this. Stop here only if they say not to start a team.
• If something fails: rig context get help is the help guide for the installed version. If rig itself won't run, use https://www.openrig.dev/help/agents. Getting started: https://openrig.dev/docs/getting-started

2. Open OpenRig and give its operator the goal

• Start OpenRig: rig daemon status, and rig daemon start if it isn't running. rig preflight and rig doctor don't start it. Starting it also starts OpenRig's own team, the kernel, whose operator sets up the person's team. Keep it.

• If the person uses Codex: now that OpenRig is running, make the one-time offer under "Codex: one offer, once, after OpenRig starts" at the end of this step.

• Show them OpenRig, the handoff: once OpenRig is running, open the OpenRig TUI and operator for the person. Say you're opening it, then run rig terminal open saved:kernel --window on the daemon's desktop. This is the next step after installing or starting OpenRig, and the way back whenever they want their agents or OpenRig again. Don't wait to be asked or for particular words. If they've said not now, give them that command for later. It opens a view itself, using herdr when installed or plain tmux otherwise:

  • Inside Herdr (you run in a Herdr pane): it switches the person's Herdr to an openrig kernel space, reusing a live one. No new window and no macOS prompt; their own spaces stay in the sidebar.
  • In Terminal or Ghostty: a new tab or window the size of theirs.
  • From Claude Desktop, iTerm or VS Code on a Mac: a new Ghostty window when supported, otherwise Terminal. Only here, tell the person before running it that Allow is fine if macOS asks to control that app. echo $TERM_PROGRAM $__CFBundleIdentifier tells you where you run. herdr, Apple_Terminal or ghostty, or tmux with com.apple.Terminal or com.mitchellh.ghostty, mean no macOS prompt, so don't mention one. tmux with anything else (iTerm, VS Code) can prompt, so say Allow is fine first.
  • Layout: under 120 columns the operator fills the first page; from 120, the dashboard and operator share it. The advisor has its own tab or tmux window.

  Then tell the person in a sentence or two where it opened and that the operator is ready for what they want to build. Don't list agents or statuses (the TUI shows them), and don't suggest a command for them to type. Preserve the current terminal. If OpenRig's notes say it couldn't confirm the view, say so plainly. If it's already open, point them to it rather than opening another. Only if the window cannot open, rig tui --shared is the dashboard-only fallback; explain the failure and help with the chosen fallback. Herdr is visible only in a terminal the person can see; switching the shared TUI to :terminals does not open one. No and headless/SSH use are valid background outcomes. Provider-only --provider herdr or --provider cmux is for an existing provider workspace, not the first desktop window.

• If the window can't open, or over headless SSH: say plainly that no visible terminal was opened, and ask the person to open a new terminal window or tab on the daemon's host. Over SSH, that's a new SSH session to it with the known account. If you only know an HTTP daemon address, ask for the SSH details rather than inventing them. Then give them one complete command:

  • The command OpenRig printed: when rig terminal open saved:kernel --window can't open a window, it says why and ends with run: and a command (the error field with --json). That command already names the installed herdr binary and the daemon's socket, or the conversation to attach. Relay it exactly rather than composing one. If a note asks you to place the view once Herdr starts, run that rig terminal open yourself after they start it.
  • If it printed no command: find operator.agent in rig ps --nodes --rig kernel --json --fields logicalId,canonicalSessionName,tmuxAttachCommand and give env -u TMUX followed by its tmuxAttachCommand, exactly as listed (never a guessed name), for the operator's conversation. That command names the daemon's tmux server when it isn't the default one.

  For any other failure, the table under "What can interrupt installation and the OpenRig view" in rig context get reference/getting-started.md#open-the-kernel-conversations says why and what to do next.

• Offer to join this session before the first send: if this session hasn't already joined, recommend joining OpenRig in a plain shell so the operator sees a named teammate instead of "unknown sender". Inside tmux, offer joining as optional, with the effects below. Ask the person yes or no after this short explanation:

  • This adds me as a named member of the team, with my name on messages.
  • In a plain shell, joining writes no files in your project or personal settings.
  • Inside tmux (from source, not hand-tested), other agents can type into this window, and stopping the team (rig down) also closes this tmux session. It can record this session's transcript, and for Claude Code also write .openrig/context-collector.cjs and update .claude/settings.local.json for the status line, keeping an existing custom status line.
  • In a plain shell, other agents reply through the task queue because they can't type into this window, and stopping the team leaves this session running.

  Attach only on their yes; if they decline, continue the operator handoff. For this first contact, use the kernel's rig ID (the rigId of the kernel row in rig ps --json) and its operator pod: rig attach --self --rig <rigId> --pod operator --member person-agent --runtime <claude-code|codex> --print-env. --node <logicalId> binds to an existing seat instead. Attach once, and keep the variables it prints (OPENRIG_NODE_ID and OPENRIG_SESSION_NAME). Each command may run in a fresh shell, so put them in front of every later rig command. Check with rig whoami --json.

• Give the operator the goal: ask what they want worked on, in which repository and on which branch, unless they've said. Find the operator.agent row in rig ps --nodes --rig kernel --json, take its canonicalSessionName (never the logical ID or a guessed name) and send: rig send <canonicalSessionName> 'This is the agent that installed OpenRig. The person will answer in your pane. Goal: <goal>. Project folder: <absolute path>. Branch: <branch>.' Or the person types the goal and folder in the operator's pane. If they give you a goal later, forward it the same way. The operator helps them pick a team that fits their logins, starts it on their yes and gives the goal to the team's lead. Before that yes, it says what launching into their folder changes for their own agent there; relay that with the question. Show them where the operator answers, and don't build the project yourself.

• Relay the operator's questions: the operator asks in its own pane, and the person may not be looking there. After each step you hand it, read its screen with rig capture <canonicalSessionName>. When it asks the person something (start this team? which folder? which option?), ask them here in the operator's words and send their answer back with rig send, or tell them to answer in the operator's pane. Unlike a prompt or a menu, a question doesn't show up as a stopped seat, so don't leave it to a background wait.

• Installation is finished when the operator is ready and the person is talking to it; a healthy daemon alone isn't that. If they'd rather talk later, keep that choice, leave them the exact connection step and say the handoff to the operator is still pending.

• See what's running: rig ps, then rig ps --nodes --rig <rig> for a team's agents. If a team is already running in that repository, tell the operator.

• Check it's ready before you say so: rig ps --nodes --rig <rig>. If an agent is stopped at a prompt or a menu, read it with rig capture <seat>@<rig> and answer with the key that screen shows (rig send --help says how to send a digit, a letter or Escape), or ask the person. Capture it again before sending anything more.

• Replies: in a plain shell, other agents can't type into this session. Read work sent to you with rig queue list --destination <your address> and rig queue show <id> --full, and read an agent's screen with rig capture <seat>@<rig>.

Codex: one offer, once, after OpenRig starts

First the agent resolves the person's real Codex folder (CODEX_HOME, or ~/.codex when that isn't set) and puts the exact path in the offer, so the person sees the real file, not a placeholder:

Codex asks you to approve OpenRig commands. May I let six of them run without asking: rig ps, rig capture, rig send, rig queue, rig status and rig whoami, each with whatever follows it? They would run outside Codex's sandbox, in every Codex project and session you run on this computer, and rig send and rig queue can message your agents and change their task records, not only read them. I'd add one file, /home/you/.codex/rules/openrig.rules (the resolved path). Codex reads it when it starts, so it applies from your next Codex session. To undo, ask me to remove the OpenRig rules this added and keep your other rules.

• No, or no answer: nothing is written, and Codex behaves as before.
• Yes: the agent applies it the way OpenRig's existing permission steps already describe (applying-a-permission-policy, in the installed OpenRig skills): read the existing rules first, keep any stricter rule, change no sandbox or approval setting, and record what it added. The file is created only if it doesn't exist; if it does, the agent changes nothing and says what's there. A new file holds exactly these two lines:

  # Added by OpenRig on the person's yes: these six rig command families run without a prompt. Ask to undo, or delete this file if it holds nothing else.
  prefix_rule(pattern = ["rig", ["ps", "capture", "send", "queue", "status", "whoami"]], decision = "allow", justification = "OpenRig coordination commands the person approved once")
  

• Undo (the same skill's words: "Undo the OpenRig command allowances added by this setup; keep my other rules"): the agent removes only the lines it recorded adding, keeps anything else in the file, and deletes the file only if it still holds nothing but those lines. It applies from the next Codex session.

3. Follow the work to its result

• Find the team's task: the operator gives the goal to the team's lead as a queue task: dev-build@starter, or orch-lead in workshop and factory (for starter and factory, rig specs preview <name> --kind rig says what each seat does; for a running team, rig ps --nodes --rig <rig>). Find it with rig queue list --destination <seat>@<rig> -a.
• Follow it to the result: a task that changed hands isn't finished. rig queue show <id> --full names the seat it went to, and that seat's next task is the one whose handedOffFrom is that ID (rig queue list --destination <seat>@<rig> -a -o json). Follow each handoff until an agent reports the result, and use rig capture <seat>@<rig> to see what it's doing. Then read what it produced and tell the person what the team actually did (the branch, commit, review or PR text), not just that you sent it.
• Give the team more work: write the goal to a file: what to change, in which repository and branch, what done looks like, and that the result comes back to you (the branch or commit, the review, any PR text). Then rig queue create --source <your name> --destination <seat>@<rig> --summary "<the goal in a sentence>" --body-file <file>, and tell that agent with rig send <seat>@<rig> "task <id> is yours". A message informs, and a queue task is the work someone owns. --source names you when this session hasn't joined the team.
• Then ask what's next. If no team can take the work, fix that or ask the person. Don't quietly do it yourself.
• Other ways to work with the team: rig send <seat>@<rig> "..." types into an agent's terminal, rig capture <seat>@<rig> reads its screen, and rig ps --nodes --rig <rig> shows who's on it.

4. Find out more

• How OpenRig works: rig context profile world-public --situation fresh.
• What you can do: rig context get onboarding-width (the capability map).
• Everything in the library: rig context list.
• Exact syntax: rig <command> --help is always current for the installed version.

Written for OpenRig 0.6.7. When something here and --help disagree, --help wins.