RigReady 2.0.0

A rebuild from the ground up. Nothing of 1.1.0's code or update channel carries over. The setup files version 1 left in ~/.rigready are left as they are: they are listed apart on the Setups page, where one can be brought over as a new setup from the parts that convert exactly, or deleted. RigReady 1 also left "Keep in the tray" switched off in the settings file, behind a switch nobody could use; this version ignores that value, so closing the window keeps RigReady in the tray. A 2.0 beta (up to beta 4) that saved the settings kept the off value as a choice: if closing the window quits RigReady, turn on Keep RigReady in the tray when you close the window once in Configure > Settings.

The first signed release. The installer, RigReady.exe and the uninstaller carry a code signature with the publisher name "Mark Cheli", issued through Microsoft's Artifact Signing service, so Windows names the publisher in its dialogs and in the file's properties. Installed copies check that signature before they install an update, and refuse one that is unsigned or signed under another name. SmartScreen may still warn the first time the installer runs, until the installer has earned a reputation with Microsoft.

What it contains

Play

• One screen for the setup used last: a readiness dial, the rig drawn with its monitors and devices so a problem shows as a place, a grouped checklist, and a fix beside every failing item.
• One action, Make ready and launch (or Enter): the fixes run in order as visible steps and the game is launched once everything required is met. Make ready, Launch and Stand down are also there on their own.
• Required items make the rig Not ready; optional items only warn. Launch is never blocked, and nothing is launched past a required problem without asking.
• The session is followed: in progress, then Welcome back with Stand down as the main action. Unless the setup switches it off, Stand down then runs by itself after a countdown you can cancel; the countdown length is set for each setup. When the desk monitor layout has not yet been kept with the monitors connected now, the countdown says so and asks you to stay and press Keep it. A history of sessions says what needed fixing most often.
• Stand down and a restore ask all the processes of a helper program to close together, and name one that stays open with the reason. A restore never forces a program closed; Stand down does so only where the check allows it.
• An overlay over the game, off until you turn it on: a small see-through list of each button or hat you press and what the game does on it for the aircraft or car you are in. Each line fades after a few seconds. Once it is on, each setup has its own switch as well, so it can be up in one game and down in another; a setup starts with it on only where RigReady can read that game's bindings. You choose the screen (or "The main screen", which follows the monitor layout in use), the place, the size, the number of lines and how long a press stays; the page warns when the chosen monitor is off in a setup's layout. It is a window on a monitor, not inside a VR headset.
• A compact view that stays on top, a quiet offer to switch when the gear plugged in fits another setup, an optional ready tone.
• One double-click: a desktop shortcut per setup, RigReady.exe --launch "<setup>" (also --make-ready and --setup), a taskbar Jump List, a status badge, progress and three buttons on the taskbar button, an optional global hotkey.
• Tray icon with the same actions; optional start with Windows.

Setups

• Created by capturing the rig as it is now: game, devices, apps, monitor layout, audio devices, game files.
• A setup launches its game as a program, through Steam, or not at all. A new setup proposes the helper apps that go with its game, and an app RigReady does not know can be offered in every new setup ("Always offer this app").
• A full editor, clone, copy items between setups, hand-editable YAML that a broken file cannot take down.
• A setup left by RigReady 1 can be brought over as a new setup: the parts that convert exactly are brought, and each part left out is named before anything is written. The old file is only read.

Checks and fixes

• Device connected (identical devices told apart), app or service running, monitor layout, default audio device, config file present or containing a value, script, game updated since last verified, device hidden by HidHide.
• Fixes: start an app, apply a monitor layout with a timed revert, set the audio device, restore a file, run a script, show instructions.

Monitors and audio

• A to-scale map, named layouts, Identify with numbers and an up arrow on every screen, position, rotation, on/off, main display, resolution and refresh rate. Applying a layout shows the map moving from before to after.
• A layout applied by hand asks whether to keep it, and goes back by itself without an answer. Make ready and Stand down ask only the first time a layout is used on this PC; once it is kept, they apply it at once and still read it back.
• Identical USB screens are recognised by the serial number of their USB device.

DCS World

• Installs across Steam libraries and standalone; update waiting; aircraft list.
• MFD screen setup written to RigReady's own MonitorSetup file, starting from SimAppPro's plan when there is one; without SimAppPro, for every installed aircraft that can export a display, read from the aircraft's own files. An aircraft or a display RigReady did not find can be added by name. When Use in DCS changes DCS's window, it offers to update the setups that still expect the old one, naming each and what changes, in one action you can undo; a setup left as it was says so on the Play screen, and "Set the DCS options" asks before it would undo the screen setup in use.
• Export.lua managed one tool at a time; overwrites by other programs are noticed.
• Bindings for every DCS aircraft: effective bindings (defaults plus your changes), editing with a preview, clean-up of unwanted defaults, device ID repair, copy between aircraft, snapshots. Binding the kneeboard button says when its pages cannot be turned from a controller, and offers to bind those next. Binding guides and curated priority lists exist for the aircraft listed in the manual.
• Cheat sheets of what every control does, print and PDF, DCS kneeboard pages in day and night styles, and a trainer that names an action and has you press the control. A throttle stop or a switch position counts once it has been there a moment, and you leave it there; a missed card comes back at the end of the round.
• Simple outline drawings, each control placed by its button number: the WinWing Orion stick (ViperAce F-16EX and F/A-18 grips), the Orion throttle with the F-15EX handles, the MFD frames, the UFC with its HUD, the ICP, the startup panel and take-off panel 2, and the Thrustmaster HOTAS Warthog stick and throttle, the T.16000M and the TWCS throttle. Each has a label block and leader line per control, placed so that no two lines cross. The ViperAce grip, the F-15EX throttle and take-off panel 2 (its brake and wing fold handles included) were checked against presses on a real rig, and a drawing knows where a control rests, such as a throttle at IDLE. A press on a control the drawing does not show is listed under "More controls". The Saitek / Logitech X52 Pro has its controls named, without a drawing. A drawing can be corrected or shown over a photo of the device. For any device, a sheet can be made from your own photos (press a control, then click where it is) or imported from a file; the photos stay on this PC. The outlines are schematic and cover only these devices so far; a photo gives a picture that looks like your own.
• Twenty binding guides for DCS, covering the F/A-18C, F-16C, A-10C II and A-10C, A-10A, F-14 (pilot and RIO), F-15E (pilot and WSO), F-15C, MiG-29, Su-27 and J-11A, Su-33, Su-25T, Su-25, Ka-50 III and Ka-50, UH-1H, P-51D, TF-51D, F-86F and Christen Eagle II. For any other aircraft you can import a guide file or write your own, with no AI key, or have optional AI help draft one.
• Optional AI help with your own key from Anthropic (the default), OpenAI, or any OpenAI-compatible service: presets for Google Gemini, OpenRouter, Mistral, and Ollama and LM Studio on your own PC. Each provider keeps its own encrypted key, gets a Test button and a model you can type, and only its one host is contacted (https, or http to this PC only).

AI assistants

• An MCP server inside RigReady, off by default, so that an assistant on the same PC (Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code and other MCP clients) can check the rig, make it ready, read and change bindings with a preview, apply a monitor layout, make a backup, read the log and read the manual. RigReady.exe --mcp connects assistants that start a program; others pair from Settings.
• Connect an assistant with one button: Settings > AI assistants lists the assistants found on this PC (Claude Desktop, LM Studio, AnythingLLM, Jan, Msty Studio, Goose, then Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code, Windsurf). Claude Desktop and AnythingLLM get RigReady added to their settings file after a preview, with a backup and Undo on the Safety page; Cursor, VS Code and LM Studio get their own install link; Claude Code gets its command, run on request. The welcome screen offers it as an optional last step. The ways that need no pairing token come first; where one is needed, the token is drawn hidden in the text to paste, is never written to the log, and stops working when the pairing is forgotten.
• RigReady asks in its own window before an assistant changes the rig or launches a game (Always ask, Ask before a launch only, or Never ask). Changes go through the same backups and Undo, and Settings lists what assistants did. The AI provider keys and the AI settings are never offered to an assistant.
• Guided conversations for first setup, fixing bindings, a ri...

v2.0.0-beta.5

The fourth signed test build, for the second look on the rig.

New since beta 4:

• What the guided sitting of 12 November found, fixed.
• One Games entry, and Bindings with a game picker.
• iRacing bindings for all cars and per car, read only. Changing them is built and switched off.
• The overlay.
• Add a game.
• "Always offer this app".
• Bringing a RigReady 1 setup over.
• "What is this device?"
• A Save bar on every editor.
• Stand down when the game closes.
• Closing helper programs together.
• A cheat sheet from a photo of your own controller.
• Your own binding guide without an AI key.
• The Thrustmaster Warthog throttle and TWCS drawings.
• A wording pass for people who only race.
• Fixes from a review of the night's work.

What it contains is the 2.0.0 section of the changelog. A test build: 2.0.0 follows once the second look on the rig has passed.

v2.0.0-beta.4

The third signed test build.

Fixed since beta 3, all found by running the test plan against it:

• On the DCS screen map, a monitor's name no longer sits on top of a viewport's.
• The question RigReady asks before an assistant changes something names a setup by its name. It says in a sentence what a directly called channel does, with the call itself under it.
• The count of calls beside a paired assistant no longer falls behind the list. On Windows a settings file could not be replaced while the page was reading it; such a write now waits a moment and tries again.
• iRacing keyboard bindings show the name of the key for the number pad, punctuation, F13 to F16 and the media keys.
• In the trainer, the control asked for stands out from switches that are simply left on.
• The Play screen's drawing of the monitors names every monitor, small ones by a letter and a key.

What it contains is the 2.0.0 section of the changelog. It is offered only to people who chose the beta channel in Settings > Updates.

v2.0.0-beta.3

The second signed test build.

New since beta 2:

• Twenty binding guides.
• MFD screen setup for every installed aircraft that exports displays.
• Named controls and drawings for the Thrustmaster Warthog, T.16000M and Saitek X52 Pro.
• 13 more games: MSFS 2020, X-Plane 12 and 11, IL-2, Falcon BMS, ACC, rFactor 2, AMS2, EA WRC, F1 24 and 25, DiRT Rally 2.0, RaceRoom, ACE COMBAT 8.
• A Wheel page for every major wheelbase brand.
• An Assetto Corsa controller repair.
• About 60 more devices recognised.
• The built-in assistant on every screen, with OpenAI, Gemini, OpenRouter, Mistral and local models as well as Anthropic.
• One-button connection for AI assistants over MCP.
• A virtual controller for gamepad-only games and emulators.
• Links from every screen to its manual page.

What it contains is the 2.0.0 section of the changelog. It is offered only to people who chose the beta channel in Settings > Updates.

v2.0.0-beta.2

The first signed test build of 2.0.0.

New since beta 1:

• The installer, RigReady.exe and the uninstaller carry a code signature with the publisher "Mark Cheli", issued through Microsoft's Artifact Signing service. Installed copies check that signature before they install an update.
• An answer to an assistant's question that stops further questions about changes.
• The Safety page names the assistant beside a change it made.

What it contains is the 2.0.0 section of the changelog. It is offered only to people who chose the beta channel in Settings > Updates.

v1.1.0

This is the first RigReady, from early 2026. Version 2 replaces it: https://rigready.io/download/

The second release of RigReady 1, from February 2026.

New since 1.0.1:

• Profiles, saved as YAML files and made with a wizard.
• A Home page with a profile's checklist and its launch together, in place of the Launch page. A checklist checks running programs, connected devices by USB ID, the display layout, config files and scripts. A failing item can have a fix, such as starting a program or restoring a config file.
• Scripts that run before and after a launch.
• DCS keybindings read from the game's files, with duplicates, a view per device, snapshots and a repair for changed device IDs.
• BeamNG.drive and Le Mans Ultimate among the games.
• A Stream Deck page: whether it is installed, its profiles, and backups that can be restored.
• "Press Any Button" in the Input Tester.
• The app's own dialogs in place of plain system pop-ups.
• node-hid updated from 3.2.0 to 3.3.0 (#3).

v1.0.1

This is the first RigReady, from early 2026. Version 2 replaces it: https://rigready.io/download/

The first release of RigReady on GitHub, from January 2026: a Windows installer for one user, no administrator rights needed.

Its pages:

• Launch: launch profiles for a game, a check that the programs a profile names are running, and a search for installed games.
• Devices: the connected controllers in a sortable table, each one click away from the Input Tester.
• Input Tester: live axes, buttons and hat switches.
• Displays: the current monitor layout, saved under a name.
• Keybindings: keybinding profiles copied to and from the clipboard, and backups of a game's keybindings that can be restored.
• Settings: each game's folders, found automatically or typed in, and a "Check for updates on startup" switch.
• Debug: details for troubleshooting.

Also in this release: development dependencies updated (#1).