dqxOne local environment for every project

Declare what a project needs once. Run it on docker, DDEV, Lerd or Herd — and change your mind later without touching the project.

One config, four backends

A project declares its sites, services and PHP version in .dq/config.yml. The backend is a choice you make per machine, not a rewrite.

Compare the backends

A shared reverse proxy serves every project on 80 and 443 together, each on its own domain with a certificate your browser already trusts.

The daily commands

dqx doctor reports what is broken and why — a schema the app cannot reach, a certificate missing a domain, a worker restarting in a loop.

When something is wrong

An MCP server answers where a project's code runs, what to run in it, and where its database is today — so an AI agent stops guessing.

AI tooling

The same declaration runs on all of them, and switching is a command rather than a rewrite.


Docker Compose	the default	Runs everywhere, isolates completely, and dqx generates the whole stack — so the environment is disposable and identical for everyone
DDEV	when page speed hurts	Fastest page render of the four, and the slowest to start and stop — 8.4× docker's, felt hardest on projects with several sites
Lerd	on Linux	By far the lightest — 1.9 GB where DDEV takes 9.6 for the same projects — and the slowest to start them
Herd	fastest, least isolated	PHP on the host: nothing to beat it for one application, and no answer when two need different extensions