# Working with Lando
Lando documentation (opens new window)
In the main project we've provided a .lando.dist.yml file out of the box to make it easier to get started with the local development setup. Of course, you are free to use other alternatives to Lando (such as DDEV - please see here).
If you've never used Lando before you should read the basics (opens new window); essentially it is a wrapper around Docker providing a much more simplified setup.
# Usage
Assuming you've installed Lando and have it setup, the commands you will commonly use are
lando start - starts up the project from the .lando.yml file, if it's the first time it will pull the images and build the project
lando stop - halts the project
lando help - provides a full list of available commands, including custom commands
lando db-import file.sql - imports a database file, accepts gzipped databases
lando drush - custom command to run drush commands inside the appserver container
lando npm - custom command to run npm inside the node container
For a full list you can visit the official documentation (opens new window).
Lando also has several guides (opens new window) for How-Tos, including using it with PhpStorm (opens new window), VSCode (opens new window) and working with PHP (opens new window).
# Configuration
If your project contains a .lando.dist.yml it's meant for that file to be overrideable. In fact you can have multiple layers of configuration so that you can override (opens new window) them with your own config for local development for example.
If you're looking for more configuration options the Lando docs are the best place to find them, here's a useful list:
Tooling (opens new window) (aka custom commands)
# Extending
In your .lando.yml you can continue adding other services for any Python, Solr, Node or database containers your project will need in addition to the defaults. Most Drupal installations are setup with a recipe (opens new window) that simply provides some sensible defaults, but you also have a full list of services (opens new window) you can add. Of course you can also add specific images.