If you want a professional Roblox development workflow, the answer is a four-tool stack: Rojo syncs your code between the filesystem and Roblox Studio, Git gives you version control, Wally manages third-party packages, and StyLua keeps your Luau formatting consistent. Together they let you write your game in a real editor like VS Code, review changes properly, and collaborate like an actual software team instead of fighting over one place file.
I have set this stack up for a few teams now, so here is the full picture: why you would bother, how to install everything, how to structure a project, and how it changes team work day to day.
[b]Why leave Studio's script editor at all[/b]
Studio's editor has improved a lot, but the fundamental problem is not the editor, it is that your entire game lives inside one binary place file. That means no meaningful diffs, no code review, no branching, and merge conflicts that are basically unresolvable. The moment two people edit the same place, someone's work is at risk.
Moving your scripts to plain .luau files on disk fixes all of that at once. The [url=https://rojo.space/docs/v7/]Rojo documentation[/url] frames it as getting "professional resources in the hands of Roblox developers", and lists the concrete wins: use editors like VS Code with their whole plugin ecosystem, plug in tools like StyLua for formatting, Selene for linting and Wally for packages, and put everything under Git so you get pull requests and code review like every other software team on the planet. It even opens the door to writing in TypeScript via roblox-ts if that is your thing, though plain Luau is where most teams land.
[b]The toolchain, piece by piece[/b]
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[*][b]Rokit[/b] is the toolchain manager, and it is where I would start in 2026. [url=https://github.com/rojo-rbx/rokit]Rokit[/url] installs and pins the versions of your other tools per project, downloads them fast, and is compatible with older Foreman and Aftman setups (those two were never compatible with each other, and Aftman's maintainer has moved on, so Rokit is the safe pick). You run [b]rokit init[/b] in your repo, then [b]rokit add[/b] for each tool, and any teammate just runs [b]rokit install[/b] to get the exact same versions.
[*][b]Rojo[/b] is the bridge between disk and Studio. Version 7 is current. A project file (default.project.json) describes how your folders map onto the Roblox instance tree, then [b]rojo serve[/b] plus the Rojo plugin in Studio live-syncs your files into the running place while you edit them in VS Code. [b]rojo build[/b] can also compile the whole project into a place file, which is exactly what you want in CI.
[*][b]Wally[/b] is the package manager, modeled on Cargo and npm. According to the [url=https://github.com/UpliftGames/wally]Wally README[/url], you declare dependencies in a human-readable wally.toml, run [b]wally install[/b], and get a wally.lock lockfile so every teammate and your CI resolve the exact same versions ([b]wally install --locked[/b] fails if the lockfile is stale, which is what you want in CI). Wally also separates packages into "server" and "shared" realms so server-only code never ends up replicated to clients by accident.
[*][b]StyLua[/b] is the formatter. [url=https://github.com/JohnnyMorganz/StyLua]StyLua[/url] is deterministic in the Prettier sense: it parses your code into a syntax tree and reprints it from scratch, so the output is identical no matter how messy the input was. It fully supports Luau, is configured with a small stylua.toml (column width defaults to 120, indentation, quote style and so on), and has a native VS Code extension so you can format on save. Once it is in place, style arguments in code review simply stop existing.
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[b]A sane project structure[/b]
Here is the layout I use, which matches what most open source Roblox projects converge on:
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[*]src/shared for ReplicatedStorage modules
[*]src/server for ServerScriptService code
[*]src/client for StarterPlayerScripts code
[*]Packages and ServerPackages, generated by Wally, mapped into ReplicatedStorage and ServerScriptService via the project file
[*]default.project.json, wally.toml, stylua.toml and the Rokit manifest at the repo root
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The important mindset shift: the repository is the source of truth, not the place file. Anything that is code lives on disk. Things that are genuinely easier to build in Studio, like maps and UI layouts, can stay in Studio, and many teams run a partially managed setup where Rojo only owns the script containers.
[b]How the team workflow actually changes[/b]
Once the stack is running, day-to-day work looks like normal software development. You branch, you write code in VS Code with Rojo serving into a local test place, StyLua formats on save, you push, a teammate reviews the diff on GitHub, and CI runs wally install --locked plus a rojo build to prove the project still compiles into a place. Two programmers can work on completely different systems at the same time without ever touching the same file, and when they do touch the same file, Git merges text like it has done for decades.
The honest downsides: there is real setup cost, non-programmers on your team still need Studio and you need a convention for who owns what, and instance-heavy assets do not diff nicely. For a solo builder making mostly-Studio experiences, the stack can be overkill. For any team of two or more programmers, or any project you expect to maintain for more than a few months, it pays for itself the first time someone says "wait, what changed?" and you can just read the pull request.
[b]Frequently asked questions[/b]
[b]Do I have to move everything out of Studio?[/b]
No. The most common setup is Rojo managing only your code folders while builders keep working on the map and UI in Studio. You can go fully managed later if it makes sense.
[b]Rokit, Aftman or Foreman, which one?[/b]
Rokit. It reads existing foreman.toml and aftman.toml files, installs faster, and is the actively maintained community option. If you inherit an Aftman project, Rokit will handle it without changes.
[b]Does this work with team members on different operating systems?[/b]
Yes. Rojo, Wally, StyLua and Rokit all ship Windows, macOS and Linux builds, and Rokit pins the exact tool versions per project so everyone runs the same thing.
[b]Can I still play-test quickly?[/b]
Yes. With rojo serve running, saving a file in VS Code updates the open place in Studio near instantly, so your edit and test loop is basically the same speed as editing in Studio directly.
If you are running this stack already, I would genuinely like to hear how you handle the Studio-only assets side, and if you are stuck setting any of it up, post your error below and I or someone here will take a look.