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Local Development With Devbox

This guide shows how to set up and use Devbox for local development with your Lapdev environments.

Read Devbox to understand what it does and when to use it.

Prerequisites

Before using Devbox, you need:

  • Lapdev CLI installed - Devbox is built into the lapdev command

  • An active Lapdev environment - Personal, shared, or branch environment

Install the Lapdev CLI

Run one of the following commands based on your operating system.

Linux or macOS

curl -fsSL https://get.lap.dev/lapdev-cli.sh | bash

This script detects your architecture, downloads the latest release, and places the lapdev binary in /usr/local/bin (or ~/.local/bin if needed). Re-run it at any time to upgrade or pass --version <x.y.z> to pin a specific build.

Windows PowerShell

irm https://get.lap.dev/lapdev-cli.ps1 | iex

Run the command in an elevated PowerShell window if your execution policy requires it. The installer copies lapdev.exe into %LOCALAPPDATA%\Lapdev\bin and appends that directory to your user PATH. Restart your shell (or VS Code terminal) after installation so the new path is picked up.

After installing, verify everything is ready with:

lapdev --version

Connect to Lapdev

First, connect your Devbox CLI to Lapdev:

lapdev devbox connect

This establishes a secure connection between your local machine and Lapdev.

Set Active Environment

After connecting, set which environment you want to work with in the Lapdev dashboard:

  1. Go to the Environments tab

  2. Select the environment you want to use

  3. Click Set as Active Environment

Once set, all traffic interception and service access will route through this active environment.

Intercept a Service

Once connected, you can intercept traffic for a specific workload through the Lapdev dashboard:

  1. Open your environment in the Lapdev dashboard

  2. Stay on (or switch to) the Workloads tab

  3. Locate the workload that owns the service you want to intercept (e.g., checkout-service)

  4. Click Start Intercept inside that workload’s row

Lapdev automatically mirrors each container port, reusing any overrides from your most recent intercept. If you need custom local ports after starting the intercept, use the Edit Ports button on the intercept card and update the mappings there.

After enabling interception:

  • All cluster traffic for that service routes to your local machine

  • You can make edits, hot-reload, or debug directly in your IDE

  • Other services in the cluster remain unaffected

Access In-Cluster Services

While connected via Devbox, you can access any service in your environment using their cluster DNS names (e.g., postgres-service:5432, redis-service:6379) directly from your local code. Devbox handles the tunneling automatically — no port forwarding or VPN needed.

Next Steps

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