Using local in 2 locations

Support
1

Hi all,

I’m a developer using Local and I’m trying to figure out the best workflow for working on the same project across two desktop machines (one at home and one in the office). Ideally I’d like to continue working on the same Local site from either machine without needing to manually migrate things each time I switch locations.

My projects often involve ACF, Gutenberg blocks, and creating pages/content during development, so the database changes frequently as well as the code. Is there a recommended workflow for this with Local, such as syncing through a remote dev environment or another approach people commonly use?

2

Hi @Dev-EC! We don’t have a more streamlined option (yet), although soon we will have improvements coming out around backups that might make this a bit smoother.

Currently, your best option would be to have a remote environment where you could sync/migrate the site up from Local after completing work, and then pull it back down or re-import it to either device when you’re ready to do more. You could also use our Cloud Backups Add On for this, you would just have to create a fresh backup after making any changes, and then reimport the latest backup each time you want to start on a different device than you used previously.

3

I’ve actually found a good solution for this that I use regularly!

Steps:

  1. Run Local on your desktop machine.

  2. Connect both your desktop and laptop to Tailscale.

  3. Run a dnsmasq server on any machine in the Tailscale network.

  4. Configure Tailscale DNS:

    • Add .internal as a search domain.

    • Point DNS resolution for .internal to the machine running dnsmasq.

  5. Configure dnsmasq:

    • Create a wildcard or specific domain entry pointing to the Tailscale IP of the machine running Local.

    • Example: *.internal →

  6. Update the domain in Local to match the DNS record.

    Example: mysite.internal

  7. Access the site from any device on Tailscale by visiting:

    https://mysite.internal/wp-admin

    (You may need to accept an insecure certificate warning.)

For WP-CLI access:

  • SSH into the desktop machine.

  • Run the Local shell entry script created when you click “Site Shell” in Local.

    Example script (will be at the top of the Terminal before “Setting Local environment variables…”):

    /Users/YOURUSERNAME/Library/Application Support/Local/ssh-entry/XXXXX.sh

This will work from any machine on your Tailscale network, near or far!

4

Great thanks for the info Adam, will give this a try!

5

Thank you for sharing this @adam-amplifi.studio!