# Shotgun and remote working **URL:** \ **Category:** Pipeline Integrations\ **Tags:** fptr-tk, wfh\ **Created:** [March 13, 2020, 11:26pm UTC](https://community.shotgridsoftware.com/t/shotgun-and-remote-working/7711 "2020-03-13T23:26:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![tannaz](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/shotgunsoftware/user_avatar/community.shotgridsoftware.com/tannaz/32/32_2.png) [@tannaz](https://community.shotgridsoftware.com/u/tannaz)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2020, 11:26pm UTC](https://community.shotgridsoftware.com/t/shotgun-and-remote-working/7711/1 "2020-03-13T23:26:14Z")
I’ve heard from at least one client that in the interest in self-isolation, they’re having their studio’s employees work from home, and are wondering about solutions that can facilitate this on the Shotgun side. We’re very sympathetic to this situation (much of the Shotgun team work from home, so we’re offering [tips on keeping your wits about you here](https://community.shotgridsoftware.com/t/working-from-home-how-do-you-do-it/7699/12)). Our distributed configuration setup for Toolkit is designed for remote workers, and I’ll go into some of its details here. There are a few different paths to explore here: - A distributed config is designed for remote work. You upload your pipeline configuration to your Shotgun site, and when users select a project in Desktop or Create, or launch a DCC from the entity action menus in the browser, the config is cached locally on their machine, and they’re able to work with all of the tools in your pipeline configuration. [More on distributed vs. centralized configs here.](https://developer.shotgunsoftware.com/tk-core/initializing.html#the-toolkit-startup) - If you have custom apps, you can store them in a `bundle_cache/` folder within your uploaded config ([more on that here](https://developer.shotgunsoftware.com/tk-core/initializing.html#managing-distributed-configurations)) or upload them individually and refer to them within your config with descriptors of type `shotgun`. - Distributed configs manage the process of distributing _tools_ for your pipeline, but distributing work files is outside the scope of the product. I know that other studios have used Aspera or other services; there’s [a conversation about that in the shotgun-dev group](https://groups.google.com/a/shotgunsoftware.com/forum/?hl=en#!searchin/shotgun-dev/aspera%7Csort:date/shotgun-dev/7TOssM2OJWQ/HC-EAJh2AAAJ) - Having said that, _if_ you can ensure that the storage root paths are exactly the same for each user (or at least one path per OS), then things (reading/writing workfiles, publishes, etc.) should just work. - Finally, there is some logic built into the Loader for resolving published file paths via environment variable or `file://` URLs. You can [read about that here](https://support.shotgunsoftware.com/hc/en-us/articles/115000067493-Integrations-Admin-Guide#Configuring%20published%20file%20path%20resolution). Please let us know if you have any questions. If we can help you in any way, we’d love to do so. _If you have tips from your studio on using Toolkit (or Shotgun as a whole) for remote work, please chime in! Your expertise will help the community through some undeniably strange days._ ---
**Author:** ![tannaz](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/shotgunsoftware/user_avatar/community.shotgridsoftware.com/tannaz/32/32_2.png) [@tannaz](https://community.shotgridsoftware.com/u/tannaz)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2020, 1:17am UTC](https://community.shotgridsoftware.com/t/shotgun-and-remote-working/7711/2 "2020-03-19T01:17:05Z")
Not surprisingly, we’ve gotten quite a few posts about this topic in the past few days. I’m going to keep this list updated, so this can be a starting point: > [@Turning a centralized config into a distributed config for some users](https://community.shotgridsoftware.com/t/turning-a-centralized-config-into-a-distributed-config-for-some-users/7744): > > Now that we have a bunch of users working remotely over VPN I need to turn my centralized config into a distributed config. Our config has a shared core and I’ve modified core and most engines and apps. Are there any built in tank commands to quickly copy everything I need to zip up somewhere so it will work self contained? > [@Moving sg configs](https://community.shotgridsoftware.com/t/moving-sg-configs/7736): > > As many of you are also doing, we’re trying to figure out how to switch to a work from home setup for a few weeks. I’m going to attempt to put my work files and folders onto dropbox and have remote people sync to that. If I have a network folder that the sg config files for toolkit are stored in, and I copy that to a shared dropbox location. How can I set up the remote artists SG desktop client to use that config location and be able to publish the files locally(which would then get synced to DB… > [@Tk-config-default2 and the remote studio?](https://community.shotgridsoftware.com/t/tk-config-default2-and-the-remote-studio/7675): > > What is the feasibility of using the tk-config-default2 toolkit configuration if a studio is 100% remote work and there is no “local” file system? I tried using this config setup with nothing defined in the SG Site Preferences \> File Management page and just keep getting errors. The only way that I am able to get this to work is to set a default file path for my local machine. Then when I launch a DCC like Maya the local folder structure is created based on those settings. But, if I am trying to… ---
**Author:** ![Francesc\_Macià](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/shotgunsoftware/user_avatar/community.shotgridsoftware.com/francesc_maci%C3%A0/32/667_2.png) [@Francesc\_Macià](https://community.shotgridsoftware.com/u/Francesc_Maci%C3%A0)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2020, 4:07pm UTC](https://community.shotgridsoftware.com/t/shotgun-and-remote-working/7711/3 "2020-03-19T16:07:14Z")
Will be nice to see a practicalweb-seminar and how to do it from a on going centralized project and for a new project from scrath. It´s #covid19 times… Thanks for the list! ---
**Author:** ![jfboismenu](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/shotgunsoftware/user_avatar/community.shotgridsoftware.com/jfboismenu/32/717_2.png) [@jfboismenu](https://community.shotgridsoftware.com/u/jfboismenu)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2020, 2:34am UTC](https://community.shotgridsoftware.com/t/shotgun-and-remote-working/7711/4 "2020-03-28T02:34:47Z")
Hi! We’ve made a [post](https://community.shotgridsoftware.com/t/distributing-your-pipeline-configuration-to-users-working-from-home/7910) today about how to turn a centralized configuration into a distributed one. There’s even a script that automates part of the process. Hopefully this can help you out. JF