diff --git a/scripts/bin/comm-dev b/scripts/bin/comm-dev
new file mode 100755
index 000000000..e3bf1f24a
--- /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 $@
diff --git a/scripts/comm-dev.sh b/scripts/comm-dev.sh
new file mode 100755
index 000000000..e2cb8c396
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/comm-dev.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,69 @@
+#! /usr/bin/env bash
+
+# This is an entry for common development workflows like starting and stopping
+# expensive services
+
+set -euo pipefail
+
+COMM_ROOT="$(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
index b7bf915dc..30406a173 100644
--- a/scripts/source_development_defaults.sh
+++ b/scripts/source_development_defaults.sh
@@ -1,48 +1,52 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env bash
 
 if [[ "$OSTYPE" == 'linux'* ]]; then
   export MYSQL_UNIX_PORT="${XDG_RUNTIME_DIR:-/run/user/$UID}/mysql.sock"
   export ANDROID_HOME="${ANDROID_HOME:-$HOME/Android/Sdk}"
 fi
 
 if [[ "$OSTYPE" == 'darwin'* ]]; then
   MARIADB_DIR="${XDG_DATA_HOME:-$HOME/.local/share}/MariaDB"
   export MYSQL_UNIX_PORT="$MARIADB_DIR"/mysql.sock
   export ANDROID_HOME="${ANDROID_HOME:-$HOME/Library/Android/sdk}"
 fi
 
 # User defaults of
 # https://www.rabbitmq.com/configure.html#supported-environment-variables
 export RABBITMQ_NODENAME=comm
 export RABBITMQ_DEFAULT_PASS=comm
 export RABBITMQ_DEFAULT_USER=comm
 export RABBITMQ_HOME=${XDG_DATA_HOME:-$HOME/.local/share}/RabbitMQ
 export RABBITMQ_MNESIA_BASE=${RABBITMQ_HOME}/mnesia
 export RABBITMQ_LOG_BASE=${RABBITMQ_HOME}/logs
 export RABBITMQ_LOGS=${RABBITMQ_LOG_BASE}/comm.log
 export RABBITMQ_PLUGINS_EXPAND_DIR=${RABBITMQ_HOME}/plugins_expand
 export RABBITMQ_PID_FILE=${RABBITMQ_HOME}/rabbitmq.pid
 
 export PATH="$PATH":"$ANDROID_HOME"/emulator:"$ANDROID_HOME"/tools
 export PATH="$PATH":"$ANDROID_HOME"/tools/bin:"$ANDROID_HOME"/platform-tools
 
 # ANDROID_SDK_ROOT is deprecated, but it's still used by some tooling
 # such as sdkmanager. ANDROID_HOME is the new prefered env var.
 export ANDROID_SDK_ROOT="${ANDROID_SDK_ROOT:-$ANDROID_HOME}"
 
 export PATH="$PATH":./node_modules/.bin
 
+# Development helpers
+PRJ_ROOT="$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel)"
+export PATH="$PATH":${PRJ_ROOT}/scripts/bin
+
 # mysql2 package wants stable prefixes for temporary directory paths
 # 'nix develop' will set TMP and related variables to something different each
 # invocation
 export TMP=/tmp/app.comm
 export TEMP="$TMP"
 export TMPDIR="$TMP"
 export TEMPDIR="$TMP"
 
 mkdir -p "$TMP"
 
 # For cargo + rustup applications, ensure cargo user bin directory is on path
 if [[ ! "$PATH" =~ \.cargo/bin ]]; then
   export PATH="$PATH":${HOME}/.cargo/bin
 fi
diff --git a/scripts/start_comm_daemon.sh b/scripts/start_comm_daemon.sh
index 928144373..c5c1a5dd5 100755
--- a/scripts/start_comm_daemon.sh
+++ b/scripts/start_comm_daemon.sh
@@ -1,38 +1,39 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env bash
 
 service_command="$1"  # The command used to start the service (e.g. mariadbd)
 service_name="$2"     # The official name of service (e.g. MariaDB)
 entrypoint="$3"       # Command or script used to initiate service
 pidfile="$4"          # Location of PID file
 
 # Check if service was already started
 set +e  # allow for pgrep to not find matches
 # BSD pgrep doesn't have a "count" feature, use wc then trim whitespace
 service_count=$(pgrep "$service_command" | wc -l | xargs echo)
 set -euo pipefail
 
 if [[ "$service_count" -eq "0" ]]; then
   echo "Starting $service_name"
   # No service present, start our own
   # Launch in subshell so if the original terminal is closed, the process
   # will be inherited instead of also being forced closed
+  mkdir -p "$(dirname "${pidfile}")"
   ($entrypoint &
     echo "$!" > "$pidfile")
 
 elif [[ "$service_count" -eq "1" ]]; then
 
   # Check if it was started by this script
   running_pid="$(pgrep "$service_command")"
   if [[ ! -f "$pidfile" ]] || \
       [[ "$(cat "$pidfile")" != "$running_pid" ]]; then
     echo "Existing $service_name instance found outside of nix environment" >&2
     echo "Please stop existing services and attempt 'nix develop' again" >&2
     exit 1
   fi
 
 else
   echo "Many $service_name instances found outside of nix environment" >&2
   echo "Please stop existing services and attempt 'nix develop' again" >&2
   exit 1
 
 fi