> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.amika.dev/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# What is a rig?

> Learn how Amika VM Rigs give coding agents and people a shared cloud workstation.

A rig is a sandboxed VM tuned for coding agents. It is a shared workstation
where agents and people can work in the same repository and environment.

Each rig can include:

* One or more agent harnesses, such as Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, or Pi
* Your Git repositories, dependencies, tools, and development services
* Agent credentials, environment variables, and secrets
* SSH access and URLs for exposed services

Amika provisions the VM, prepares it from your repository configuration, and
connects it to the control plane. You can then operate the rig and its agents
from the web UI, CLI, TypeScript SDK, HTTP API, chat integrations, or your
editor.

## Shared by agents and people

A rig is not only a background execution environment. You and your teammates
can connect to it while agents are working. You can inspect files, run commands,
open the repository in an editor, view services, and continue an agent session
without moving the work to another machine.

A single rig can run multiple agents at the same time. Rigs and their agents can
also communicate with other rigs when work needs to span environments.

## Persistent or temporary

Choose the lifetime that fits the task:

* **Temporary rigs** start clean for a branch, pull request, check, or one-off
  task. Delete them when the work is complete.
* **Persistent rigs** keep their filesystem and environment available for an
  ongoing project or durable automation. Stop them when idle and start them
  again later.

You can capture a configured rig as a snapshot to create more rigs from the same
starting point.

## Where rigs run

By default, rigs run on Amika's hosted platform. Amika can also schedule rigs on
infrastructure you connect, including your own computers or cloud environment.
The control surface stays consistent across locations.

## Rig and sandbox terminology

`rig` is the product term and the canonical CLI command. A rig is sandboxed
compute, so `sandbox`, `sandboxed`, and `sandboxing` remain accurate when you
describe its isolation or generic sandbox providers.

```bash theme={null}
amika rig create
amika rig list
```

Some compatibility and configuration interfaces still use `sandbox` in exact
identifiers. For example, `amika sandbox` remains a CLI alias, and repository
configuration uses the `[sandbox]` table. Keep those identifiers as written when
an example or reference page shows them.

## Next steps

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Create a rig" href="/guides/create-a-rig" icon="cube">
    Provision a rig with your repository and agent credentials.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Rig lifecycle" href="/guides/rig-lifecycle" icon="rotate">
    List, stop, start, and delete rigs.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Connect to a rig" href="/guides/ssh-and-connect" icon="terminal">
    Open a shell or connect with an editor.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Configure a repository" href="/guides/configuration" icon="gear">
    Define reproducible rig settings alongside your code.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>