portctl

Never google "kill process on port" again.

Universal port & process manager for developers.
lsof meets htop meets docker ps — one command to see everything.

Install • Quick Start • Commands • Config • Contributing

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Demo

$ portctl scan
PORT   PROTO  PID      PROCESS    USER    LOCAL_ADDR   STATE   UPTIME
22     tcp    0        [system]            0.0.0.0      LISTEN  -
3000   tcp    14230    node       mike     127.0.0.1    LISTEN  2h14m
5432   tcp    1122     postgres   pg       127.0.0.1    LISTEN  3d12h
8080   tcp    28456    java       mike     0.0.0.0      LISTEN  45m

Why portctl?

Every developer hits this multiple times a week:

Error: listen EADDRINUSE: address already in use :::3000

Then you open a new tab and type:

lsof -i :3000 | grep LISTEN    # wait, what was the flag again?
kill -9 <pid>                    # hope that was the right one

portctl replaces that entire dance with:

portctl kill 3000    # done

But it does much more -- a live TUI dashboard, Docker integration, a background guard daemon, and beautiful output that actually helps you understand what's running on your machine.

Installation

Homebrew (macOS & Linux)

brew install Cyberwex/tap/portctl

Go install

go install github.com/Cyberwex/portctl@latest

Shell script

curl -sSfL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Cyberwex/portctl/main/scripts/install.sh | sh

From source

git clone https://github.com/Cyberwex/portctl.git
cd portctl
make install

Quick Start

# See everything listening on your machine
portctl scan

# Kill whatever is hogging port 3000
portctl kill 3000

# Live dashboard -- like htop for ports
portctl watch

# Deep-dive into a single port
portctl info 3000

# Get alerts when ports conflict
portctl guard start

Commands

portctl scan

Scan all listening ports and show the processes behind them.

portctl scan                      # All listening ports
portctl scan --port 3000          # Check a specific port
portctl scan --range 8000-9000    # Check a range
portctl scan --docker             # Include Docker containers
portctl scan --json               # Machine-readable output
portctl scan --plain              # Tab-separated for scripting
portctl scan --filter node        # Filter by process name

portctl kill

Kill processes by port with safety checks.

portctl kill 3000                 # Kill process on port 3000
portctl kill 3000 8080 4200       # Kill multiple ports at once
portctl kill --dry-run 3000       # Preview what would be killed
portctl kill --force 3000         # SIGKILL immediately (no grace period)
portctl kill --yes 3000           # Skip confirmation

Safety first: portctl always shows what will be killed and asks for confirmation (unless you pass --yes).

portctl watch

Interactive TUI dashboard with live updates.

portctl watch                     # Launch dashboard
portctl watch --interval 2s       # Custom refresh rate

Keyboard shortcuts:

Key	Action
/	Search / filter
j/k or Up/Down	Navigate
Enter	Show process details
K	Kill selected process
s	Cycle sort column
r	Force refresh
?	Toggle help
q	Quit

portctl guard

Background daemon that watches for port conflicts.

portctl guard start               # Start the daemon
portctl guard stop                # Stop it
portctl guard status              # Check if running
portctl guard logs                # View recent logs

When a different process takes over a watched port, you get an instant desktop notification.

portctl info <port>

Deep-dive into everything about a specific port.

portctl info 3000

Shows: PID, full command line, process tree, RSS memory, open file descriptors, network connections, environment variables (sensitive values masked), Docker container details.

portctl version

portctl version              # Full build info
portctl version --short      # Just the version number
portctl version --json       # JSON format

Global Flags

--json          JSON output (for scripting)
--plain         Plain tab-separated output (for piping)
--no-color      Disable colored output
--quiet         Minimal output
--verbose       Debug logging

Configuration

Config file location: ~/.config/portctl/config.yaml

scan:
  docker: true
  interval: 1s

guard:
  watch_ports: [3000, 8080, 5432, 6379]
  notify: true

output:
  color: true
  format: table    # table | json | plain

kill:
  confirm: true
  graceful_timeout: 5s

How It Works

Linux: Parses /proc/net/tcp and /proc/{pid} directly -- no shelling out, maximum speed. TCP and TCP6 are scanned in parallel.

macOS: Uses lsof with hardcoded flags (security: no user input interpolation). Process details via ps.

Docker: Connects to the Docker daemon via unix socket using stdlib net/http -- no heavy Docker SDK dependency.

Comparison

Feature	portctl	lsof	netstat	fuser	ss
Show all ports + processes	Yes	Partial	Partial	No	Partial
Kill by port	Yes	No	No	Yes	No
Docker integration	Yes	No	No	No	No
Interactive TUI	Yes	No	No	No	No
Port conflict alerts	Yes	No	No	No	No
Cross-platform	Yes	Yes	Yes	Linux	Linux
Beautiful output	Yes	No	No	No	No

Built With

• Go 1.24+
• Cobra -- CLI framework
• Bubble Tea -- TUI framework
• Lip Gloss -- TUI styling
• Bubbles -- TUI components

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please read our Contributing Guide first.

git clone https://github.com/Cyberwex/portctl.git
cd portctl
make help        # See all available commands
make test        # Run tests
make lint        # Run linter
make build       # Build binary

License

MIT -- see LICENSE.