proc

Semantic CLI tool for process management. Target by port, process id (PID), name or path.

proc on :3000                   # what's on port 3000?
proc for ./script.py            # what's running this file?
proc by node --in . --min-cpu 5 # node in cwd using >5% CPU
proc kill :3000,:8080,node      # kill mixed targets at once
proc info :3000,1234            # info for port + PID

Why proc?

One syntax. One tool. Full comparison →

Install

Manual download:

# macOS (Apple Silicon)
curl -fsSL https://github.com/yazeed/proc/releases/latest/download/proc-darwin-aarch64.tar.gz | tar xz
sudo mv proc-darwin-aarch64 /usr/local/bin/proc

# macOS (Intel)
curl -fsSL https://github.com/yazeed/proc/releases/latest/download/proc-darwin-x86_64.tar.gz | tar xz
sudo mv proc-darwin-x86_64 /usr/local/bin/proc

# Linux (x86_64)
curl -fsSL https://github.com/yazeed/proc/releases/latest/download/proc-linux-x86_64.tar.gz | tar xz
sudo mv proc-linux-x86_64 /usr/local/bin/proc

# Linux (ARM64)
curl -fsSL https://github.com/yazeed/proc/releases/latest/download/proc-linux-aarch64.tar.gz | tar xz
sudo mv proc-linux-aarch64 /usr/local/bin/proc

# Windows (PowerShell)
Invoke-WebRequest -Uri https://github.com/yazeed/proc/releases/latest/download/proc-windows-x86_64.exe.zip -OutFile proc.zip
Expand-Archive proc.zip -DestinationPath .
Move-Item proc-windows-x86_64.exe C:\Windows\System32\proc.exe

Agent Skill

Teach your coding agent (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Gemini CLI and others) to use proc with structured JSON output:

npx skills add yazeed/proc

In Claude Code you can also install it as a plugin:

/plugin marketplace add yazeed/proc
/plugin install proc-cli@proc-cli

The skill lives in skills/proc-cli/ and follows the Agent Skills standard.

Quick Start

What's using port 3000?

proc on :3000

Kill it:

proc kill :3000

What's running this script?

proc for ./script.py

Find all node processes in current directory using >5% CPU:

proc by node --in . --min-cpu 5

Kill multiple targets at once:

proc kill :3000,:8080,node

Watch processes in real-time:

proc watch node --in .

Target Syntax

All commands accept the same target syntax:

Commands

Discovery

Lifecycle

Filters

Filters can be combined with discovery and lifecycle commands:

Options

Scripting

With --json, every command prints one JSON document with action (the command name) and success. proc watch --json streams one per refresh. Errors, including invalid flags, are JSON too: {"action", "success": false, "error", "exit_code"}.

"success": false always comes with a non-zero exit code. Full schemas: skills/proc-cli/reference.md.

Examples

# What's on port 3000?
proc on :3000

# What ports is node using?
proc on node

# What's running this file?
proc for ./script.py

# What has this file open?
proc for /var/log/app.log

# Node processes in current directory
proc by node --in .

# Processes using >10% CPU
proc list --min-cpu 10

# Kill everything on ports 3000 and 8080
proc kill :3000,:8080

# Kill only node processes in current directory
proc kill node --in . --dry-run

# Process tree filtered by CPU usage
proc tree --min-cpu 5

# Watch all processes sorted by CPU (alias: proc top)
proc watch

# Watch node processes with 1s refresh
proc watch node -n 1

# Watch process on port 3000
proc watch :3000

# Watch processes in cwd sorted by memory
proc watch --in . --sort mem

# Freeze/thaw (pause and resume)
proc freeze node               # Pause all node processes
proc thaw node                 # Resume them

# Free a port (kill + verify available)
proc free :3000                # Kill and confirm port 3000 is free
proc free :3000,:8080 --yes    # Free multiple ports

# Why is port 3000 busy?
proc why :3000                 # Show ancestry chain with port context

# Find orphaned processes
proc orphans                   # List orphans
proc orphans --in . --kill     # Kill orphans in current directory

# Wait for processes to exit
proc wait node                 # Block until all node processes exit
proc wait :3000 --timeout 60   # Wait up to 60s for port process to exit
proc wait node -n 10 -q        # Check every 10s, quiet mode

# Send custom signal
proc stop nginx --signal HUP   # Reload config (SIGHUP)

# Find and recover stuck processes
proc stuck
proc unstick --force

Platform Support

The Linux binaries are statically linked (musl) and need no particular glibc version, so they also run on Alpine and on older releases such as Debian 10, Ubuntu 20.04 and Amazon Linux 2.

Shell Completions

Generate completions for your shell:

# Bash
proc completions bash > /etc/bash_completion.d/proc

# Zsh
proc completions zsh > ~/.zsh/completions/_proc

# Fish
proc completions fish > ~/.config/fish/completions/proc.fish

Man Page

Generate and install the man page:

proc manpage | sudo tee /usr/local/share/man/man1/proc.1 > /dev/null

Building from Source

git clone https://github.com/yazeed/proc
cd proc
cargo build --release

The binary will be at target/release/proc.

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md.

License

MIT