diff --git a/scripts/bin/comm-dev b/scripts/bin/comm-dev
new file mode 100755
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/bin/comm-dev
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+#! /usr/bin/env bash
+
+# This is a command entrypoint so that the majority of the bash
+# code can be linted by shellcheck
+
+PRJ_ROOT=$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel)
+"$PRJ_ROOT"/scripts/comm-dev.sh $@
diff --git a/scripts/comm-dev.sh b/scripts/comm-dev.sh
new file mode 100755
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/comm-dev.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,69 @@
+#! /usr/bin/env bash
+
+# This is an entry for common development workflows like starting and stopping
+# expensive services
+
+set -euo pipefail
+
+COMM_ROOT="$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel)"
+
+log() {
+  echo "$@" >&2
+}
+
+usage() {
+  echo "Comm Development"
+  echo ""
+  echo "Commands:"
+  echo "  services - start or stop development services"
+  echo ""
+
+  exit 1
+}
+
+services_usage() {
+  echo "Comm Development Services"
+  echo ""
+  echo "Commands:"
+  echo "  restart - restart services"
+  echo "  start   - start rabbitmq"
+  echo "  stop    - stop rabbitmq"
+  echo ""
+
+  exit 1
+}
+
+services_command() {
+  case "$1" in
+    restart)
+      "$0" services stop || true
+      "$0" services start
+      ;;
+    start)
+      nix run "$COMM_ROOT"#rabbitmq-up
+      ;;
+    stop)
+      log "Stopping services"
+      pkill rabbitmq-server beam.smp
+      ;;
+    *)
+      log "$(basename "$0"): unknown services option '$1'"
+      services_usage
+      exit 1
+    ;;
+  esac
+}
+
+case "$1" in
+  -h|--help)
+    usage
+    ;;
+  services)
+    shift
+    services_command "$@"
+    ;;
+  *)
+    log "$(basename "$0"): unknown option '$1'"
+    usage
+    ;;
+esac
diff --git a/scripts/source_development_defaults.sh b/scripts/source_development_defaults.sh
--- a/scripts/source_development_defaults.sh
+++ b/scripts/source_development_defaults.sh
@@ -32,6 +32,10 @@
 
 export PATH="$PATH":./node_modules/.bin
 
+# Development helpers
+PRJ_ROOT="$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel)"
+export PATH="$PATH":${PRJ_ROOT}/scripts/bin
+
 # mysql2 package wants stable prefixes for temporary directory paths
 # 'nix develop' will set TMP and related variables to something different each
 # invocation
diff --git a/scripts/start_comm_daemon.sh b/scripts/start_comm_daemon.sh
--- a/scripts/start_comm_daemon.sh
+++ b/scripts/start_comm_daemon.sh
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@
   # No service present, start our own
   # Launch in subshell so if the original terminal is closed, the process
   # will be inherited instead of also being forced closed
+  mkdir -p "$(dirname "${pidfile}")"
   ($entrypoint &
     echo "$!" > "$pidfile")