diff --git a/src/tools/miri/.github/workflows/ci.yml b/src/tools/miri/.github/workflows/ci.yml
index 8ced9fa86be..5e2abdde6ac 100644
--- a/src/tools/miri/.github/workflows/ci.yml
+++ b/src/tools/miri/.github/workflows/ci.yml
@@ -189,8 +189,6 @@ jobs:
           fetch-depth: 256 # get a bit more of the history
       - name: install josh-proxy
         run: cargo +stable install josh-proxy --git https://github.com/josh-project/josh --tag r22.12.06
-      - name: start josh-proxy
-        run: josh-proxy --local=$HOME/.cache/josh --remote=https://github.com --no-background &
       - name: setup bot git name and email
         run: |
           git config --global user.name 'The Miri Conjob Bot'
diff --git a/src/tools/miri/CONTRIBUTING.md b/src/tools/miri/CONTRIBUTING.md
index 60ba2cd2346..4e50b8fae81 100644
--- a/src/tools/miri/CONTRIBUTING.md
+++ b/src/tools/miri/CONTRIBUTING.md
@@ -231,25 +231,16 @@ You can also directly run Miri on a Rust source file:
 ## Advanced topic: Syncing with the rustc repo
 
 We use the [`josh` proxy](https://github.com/josh-project/josh) to transmit changes between the
-rustc and Miri repositories.
+rustc and Miri repositories. You can install it as follows:
 
 ```sh
 cargo +stable install josh-proxy --git https://github.com/josh-project/josh --tag r22.12.06
-josh-proxy --local=$HOME/.cache/josh --remote=https://github.com --no-background
 ```
 
-This uses a directory `$HOME/.cache/josh` as a cache, to speed up repeated pulling/pushing.
-
-To make josh push via ssh instead of https, you can add the following to your `.gitconfig`:
-
-```toml
-[url "git@github.com:"]
-    pushInsteadOf = https://github.com/
-```
+Josh will automatically be started and stopped by `./miri`.
 
 ### Importing changes from the rustc repo
 
-Josh needs to be running, as described above.
 We assume we start on an up-to-date master branch in the Miri repo.
 
 ```sh
@@ -268,16 +259,14 @@ needed.
 
 ### Exporting changes to the rustc repo
 
-Keep in mind that pushing is the most complicated job that josh has to do --
-pulling just filters the rustc history, but pushing needs to construct a new
-rustc history that would filter to the given Miri history! To avoid problems, it
-is a good idea to always pull immediately before you push. In particular, you
-should never do two josh pushes without an intermediate pull; that can lead to
-duplicated commits.
+Keep in mind that pushing is the most complicated job that josh has to do -- pulling just filters
+the rustc history, but pushing needs to construct a new rustc history that would filter to the given
+Miri history! To avoid problems, it is a good idea to always pull immediately before you push. If
+you are getting strange errors, chances are you are running into [this josh
+bug](https://github.com/josh-project/josh/issues/998). In that case, please get in touch on Zulip.
 
-Josh needs to be running, as described above. We will use the josh proxy to push
-to your fork of rustc. Run the following in the Miri repo, assuming we are on an
-up-to-date master branch:
+We will use the josh proxy to push to your fork of rustc. Run the following in the Miri repo,
+assuming we are on an up-to-date master branch:
 
 ```sh
 # Push the Miri changes to your rustc fork (substitute your github handle for YOUR_NAME).
@@ -287,3 +276,11 @@ up-to-date master branch:
 This will create a new branch called 'miri' in your fork, and the output should
 include a link to create a rustc PR that will integrate those changes into the
 main repository.
+
+If this fails due to authentication problems, it can help to make josh push via ssh instead of
+https. Add the following to your `.gitconfig`:
+
+```toml
+[url "git@github.com:"]
+    pushInsteadOf = https://github.com/
+```
diff --git a/src/tools/miri/miri-script/Cargo.lock b/src/tools/miri/miri-script/Cargo.lock
index cf6062d7d7f..1a22596b774 100644
--- a/src/tools/miri/miri-script/Cargo.lock
+++ b/src/tools/miri/miri-script/Cargo.lock
@@ -8,6 +8,38 @@ version = "1.0.71"
 source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
 checksum = "9c7d0618f0e0b7e8ff11427422b64564d5fb0be1940354bfe2e0529b18a9d9b8"
 
+[[package]]
+name = "bitflags"
+version = "1.3.2"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "bef38d45163c2f1dde094a7dfd33ccf595c92905c8f8f4fdc18d06fb1037718a"
+
+[[package]]
+name = "cfg-if"
+version = "1.0.0"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "baf1de4339761588bc0619e3cbc0120ee582ebb74b53b4efbf79117bd2da40fd"
+
+[[package]]
+name = "directories"
+version = "4.0.1"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "f51c5d4ddabd36886dd3e1438cb358cdcb0d7c499cb99cb4ac2e38e18b5cb210"
+dependencies = [
+ "dirs-sys",
+]
+
+[[package]]
+name = "dirs-sys"
+version = "0.3.7"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "1b1d1d91c932ef41c0f2663aa8b0ca0342d444d842c06914aa0a7e352d0bada6"
+dependencies = [
+ "libc",
+ "redox_users",
+ "winapi",
+]
+
 [[package]]
 name = "dunce"
 version = "1.0.4"
@@ -20,6 +52,17 @@ version = "1.8.1"
 source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
 checksum = "7fcaabb2fef8c910e7f4c7ce9f67a1283a1715879a7c230ca9d6d1ae31f16d91"
 
+[[package]]
+name = "getrandom"
+version = "0.2.10"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "be4136b2a15dd319360be1c07d9933517ccf0be8f16bf62a3bee4f0d618df427"
+dependencies = [
+ "cfg-if",
+ "libc",
+ "wasi",
+]
+
 [[package]]
 name = "itertools"
 version = "0.10.5"
@@ -40,6 +83,7 @@ name = "miri-script"
 version = "0.1.0"
 dependencies = [
  "anyhow",
+ "directories",
  "dunce",
  "itertools",
  "path_macro",
@@ -62,6 +106,44 @@ version = "1.0.0"
 source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
 checksum = "a6e819bbd49d5939f682638fa54826bf1650abddcd65d000923de8ad63cc7d15"
 
+[[package]]
+name = "proc-macro2"
+version = "1.0.66"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "18fb31db3f9bddb2ea821cde30a9f70117e3f119938b5ee630b7403aa6e2ead9"
+dependencies = [
+ "unicode-ident",
+]
+
+[[package]]
+name = "quote"
+version = "1.0.33"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "5267fca4496028628a95160fc423a33e8b2e6af8a5302579e322e4b520293cae"
+dependencies = [
+ "proc-macro2",
+]
+
+[[package]]
+name = "redox_syscall"
+version = "0.2.16"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "fb5a58c1855b4b6819d59012155603f0b22ad30cad752600aadfcb695265519a"
+dependencies = [
+ "bitflags",
+]
+
+[[package]]
+name = "redox_users"
+version = "0.4.3"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "b033d837a7cf162d7993aded9304e30a83213c648b6e389db233191f891e5c2b"
+dependencies = [
+ "getrandom",
+ "redox_syscall",
+ "thiserror",
+]
+
 [[package]]
 name = "rustc_version"
 version = "0.4.0"
@@ -92,6 +174,43 @@ version = "1.1.0"
 source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
 checksum = "24188a676b6ae68c3b2cb3a01be17fbf7240ce009799bb56d5b1409051e78fde"
 
+[[package]]
+name = "syn"
+version = "2.0.29"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "c324c494eba9d92503e6f1ef2e6df781e78f6a7705a0202d9801b198807d518a"
+dependencies = [
+ "proc-macro2",
+ "quote",
+ "unicode-ident",
+]
+
+[[package]]
+name = "thiserror"
+version = "1.0.47"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "97a802ec30afc17eee47b2855fc72e0c4cd62be9b4efe6591edde0ec5bd68d8f"
+dependencies = [
+ "thiserror-impl",
+]
+
+[[package]]
+name = "thiserror-impl"
+version = "1.0.47"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "6bb623b56e39ab7dcd4b1b98bb6c8f8d907ed255b18de254088016b27a8ee19b"
+dependencies = [
+ "proc-macro2",
+ "quote",
+ "syn",
+]
+
+[[package]]
+name = "unicode-ident"
+version = "1.0.11"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "301abaae475aa91687eb82514b328ab47a211a533026cb25fc3e519b86adfc3c"
+
 [[package]]
 name = "walkdir"
 version = "2.3.3"
@@ -102,6 +221,12 @@ dependencies = [
  "winapi-util",
 ]
 
+[[package]]
+name = "wasi"
+version = "0.11.0+wasi-snapshot-preview1"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "9c8d87e72b64a3b4db28d11ce29237c246188f4f51057d65a7eab63b7987e423"
+
 [[package]]
 name = "which"
 version = "4.4.0"
diff --git a/src/tools/miri/miri-script/Cargo.toml b/src/tools/miri/miri-script/Cargo.toml
index c0414a2fe37..d805a94c8f5 100644
--- a/src/tools/miri/miri-script/Cargo.toml
+++ b/src/tools/miri/miri-script/Cargo.toml
@@ -20,3 +20,4 @@ anyhow = "1.0"
 xshell = "0.2"
 rustc_version = "0.4"
 dunce = "1.0.4"
+directories = "4"
diff --git a/src/tools/miri/miri-script/src/commands.rs b/src/tools/miri/miri-script/src/commands.rs
index cadd7ade4a5..2948219ad89 100644
--- a/src/tools/miri/miri-script/src/commands.rs
+++ b/src/tools/miri/miri-script/src/commands.rs
@@ -2,6 +2,9 @@ use std::env;
 use std::ffi::OsString;
 use std::io::Write;
 use std::ops::Not;
+use std::process;
+use std::thread;
+use std::time;
 
 use anyhow::{anyhow, bail, Context, Result};
 use path_macro::path;
@@ -14,6 +17,7 @@ use crate::Command;
 /// Used for rustc syncs.
 const JOSH_FILTER: &str =
     ":rev(75dd959a3a40eb5b4574f8d2e23aa6efbeb33573:prefix=src/tools/miri):/src/tools/miri";
+const JOSH_PORT: &str = "42042";
 
 impl MiriEnv {
     fn build_miri_sysroot(&mut self, quiet: bool) -> Result<()> {
@@ -81,6 +85,55 @@ impl Command {
         Ok(())
     }
 
+    fn start_josh() -> Result<impl Drop> {
+        // Determine cache directory.
+        let local_dir = {
+            let user_dirs =
+                directories::ProjectDirs::from("org", "rust-lang", "miri-josh").unwrap();
+            user_dirs.cache_dir().to_owned()
+        };
+
+        // Start josh, silencing its output.
+        let mut cmd = process::Command::new("josh-proxy");
+        cmd.arg("--local").arg(local_dir);
+        cmd.arg("--remote").arg("https://github.com");
+        cmd.arg("--port").arg(JOSH_PORT);
+        cmd.arg("--no-background");
+        cmd.stdout(process::Stdio::null());
+        cmd.stderr(process::Stdio::null());
+        let josh = cmd.spawn().context("failed to start josh-proxy, make sure it is installed")?;
+        // Give it some time so hopefully the port is open. (10ms was not enough.)
+        thread::sleep(time::Duration::from_millis(100));
+
+        // Create a wrapper that stops it on drop.
+        struct Josh(process::Child);
+        impl Drop for Josh {
+            fn drop(&mut self) {
+                #[cfg(unix)]
+                {
+                    // Try to gracefully shut it down.
+                    process::Command::new("kill")
+                        .args(["-s", "INT", &self.0.id().to_string()])
+                        .output()
+                        .expect("failed to SIGINT josh-proxy");
+                    // Sadly there is no "wait with timeout"... so we just give it some time to finish.
+                    thread::sleep(time::Duration::from_millis(100));
+                    // Now hopefully it is gone.
+                    if self.0.try_wait().expect("failed to wait for josh-proxy").is_some() {
+                        return;
+                    }
+                }
+                // If that didn't work (or we're not on Unix), kill it hard.
+                eprintln!(
+                    "I have to kill josh-proxy the hard way, let's hope this does not break anything."
+                );
+                self.0.kill().expect("failed to SIGKILL josh-proxy");
+            }
+        }
+
+        Ok(Josh(josh))
+    }
+
     pub fn exec(self) -> Result<()> {
         // First, and crucially only once, run the auto-actions -- but not for all commands.
         match &self {
@@ -94,8 +147,8 @@ impl Command {
             | Command::Cargo { .. } => Self::auto_actions()?,
             | Command::ManySeeds { .. }
             | Command::Toolchain { .. }
-            | Command::RustcPull { .. }
             | Command::Bench { .. }
+            | Command::RustcPull { .. }
             | Command::RustcPush { .. } => {}
         }
         // Then run the actual command.
@@ -174,6 +227,8 @@ impl Command {
         if cmd!(sh, "git status --untracked-files=no --porcelain").read()?.is_empty().not() {
             bail!("working directory must be clean before running `./miri rustc-pull`");
         }
+        // Make sure josh is running.
+        let josh = Self::start_josh()?;
 
         // Update rust-version file. As a separate commit, since making it part of
         // the merge has confused the heck out of josh in the past.
@@ -186,7 +241,7 @@ impl Command {
             .context("FAILED to commit rust-version file, something went wrong")?;
 
         // Fetch given rustc commit.
-        cmd!(sh, "git fetch http://localhost:8000/rust-lang/rust.git@{commit}{JOSH_FILTER}.git")
+        cmd!(sh, "git fetch http://localhost:{JOSH_PORT}/rust-lang/rust.git@{commit}{JOSH_FILTER}.git")
             .run()
             .map_err(|e| {
                 // Try to un-do the previous `git commit`, to leave the repo in the state we found it it.
@@ -202,6 +257,8 @@ impl Command {
         cmd!(sh, "git merge FETCH_HEAD --no-verify --no-ff -m {MERGE_COMMIT_MESSAGE}")
             .run()
             .context("FAILED to merge new commits, something went wrong")?;
+
+        drop(josh);
         Ok(())
     }
 
@@ -213,6 +270,8 @@ impl Command {
         if cmd!(sh, "git status --untracked-files=no --porcelain").read()?.is_empty().not() {
             bail!("working directory must be clean before running `./miri rustc-push`");
         }
+        // Make sure josh is running.
+        let josh = Self::start_josh()?;
 
         // Find a repo we can do our preparation in.
         if let Ok(rustc_git) = env::var("RUSTC_GIT") {
@@ -249,6 +308,8 @@ impl Command {
         }
         cmd!(sh, "git fetch https://github.com/rust-lang/rust {base}").run()?;
         cmd!(sh, "git push https://github.com/{github_user}/rust {base}:refs/heads/{branch}")
+            .ignore_stdout()
+            .ignore_stderr() // silence the "create GitHub PR" message
             .run()?;
         println!();
 
@@ -257,7 +318,7 @@ impl Command {
         println!("Pushing miri changes...");
         cmd!(
             sh,
-            "git push http://localhost:8000/{github_user}/rust.git{JOSH_FILTER}.git HEAD:{branch}"
+            "git push http://localhost:{JOSH_PORT}/{github_user}/rust.git{JOSH_FILTER}.git HEAD:{branch}"
         )
         .run()?;
         println!();
@@ -265,7 +326,7 @@ impl Command {
         // Do a round-trip check to make sure the push worked as expected.
         cmd!(
             sh,
-            "git fetch http://localhost:8000/{github_user}/rust.git{JOSH_FILTER}.git {branch}"
+            "git fetch http://localhost:{JOSH_PORT}/{github_user}/rust.git{JOSH_FILTER}.git {branch}"
         )
         .ignore_stderr()
         .read()?;
@@ -278,6 +339,8 @@ impl Command {
             "Confirmed that the push round-trips back to Miri properly. Please create a rustc PR:"
         );
         println!("    https://github.com/{github_user}/rust/pull/new/{branch}");
+
+        drop(josh);
         Ok(())
     }
 
@@ -295,6 +358,7 @@ impl Command {
             bail!("expected many-seeds command to be non-empty");
         };
         let sh = Shell::new()?;
+        sh.set_var("MIRI_AUTO_OPS", "no"); // just in case we get recursively invoked
         for seed in seed_start..seed_end {
             println!("Trying seed: {seed}");
             let mut miriflags = env::var_os("MIRIFLAGS").unwrap_or_default();
diff --git a/src/tools/miri/miri-script/src/main.rs b/src/tools/miri/miri-script/src/main.rs
index 849a9168028..41b82cfc472 100644
--- a/src/tools/miri/miri-script/src/main.rs
+++ b/src/tools/miri/miri-script/src/main.rs
@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+#![allow(clippy::needless_question_mark)]
+
 mod commands;
 mod util;
 
diff --git a/src/tools/miri/src/lib.rs b/src/tools/miri/src/lib.rs
index d57da574315..03dd9037808 100644
--- a/src/tools/miri/src/lib.rs
+++ b/src/tools/miri/src/lib.rs
@@ -32,6 +32,7 @@
     clippy::needless_return,
     clippy::bool_to_int_with_if,
     clippy::box_default,
+    clippy::needless_question_mark,
     // We are not implementing queries here so it's fine
     rustc::potential_query_instability
 )]