Nuxt Dev Server Manager

A Visual Studio Code extension to manage Nuxt development servers directly from the status bar.

Features

• Status Bar Integration - Shows the number of running Nuxt instances at a glance
• Start/Stop/Restart - Control your dev server with simple commands
• Graceful Shutdown - Tries SIGTERM before SIGKILL for cleaner process termination
• Process Management - View and manage all running Nuxt instances
• Multi-Instance Support - List all Nuxt servers and selectively kill specific ones
• Auto-Detection - Automatically detects your package manager (npm, yarn, pnpm, bun)
• Port Detection - Extracts and displays the running server port
• Version Info - View installed and running Nuxt versions
• Quick Browser Access - Open your dev server in the browser with one click
• Auto-Kill Features - Automatically kill servers after timeout or idle time
• Activity Tracking - Monitors file changes to detect idle servers
• Progress Indicators - Visual feedback during start/stop operations
• Configurable Settings - Customize timeout, intervals, and behavior
• Security Hardened - PID validation, safe JSON parsing, input sanitization

Usage

Status Bar

Click the Nuxt status bar item (lower left) to access all commands via quick pick menu.

The status bar shows:

• ⚡ Nuxt Dev (n) - When your managed server is running (n = total instances)
• ⚡ Nuxt (n) - When other Nuxt instances are detected
• ⊘ Nuxt Dev - When no server is running

Commands

All commands are available via the Command Palette (Cmd+Shift+P / Ctrl+Shift+P):

• Nuxt: Start Dev Server - Start the dev server in current workspace
• Nuxt: Stop Dev Server - Stop the managed dev server
• Nuxt: Restart Dev Server - Restart the managed dev server
• Nuxt: Show All Running Instances - Display detailed information about all running Nuxt servers
• Nuxt: List and Kill Instances - View all running Nuxt processes and select which to kill
• Nuxt: Kill All Running Instances - Kill all Nuxt processes on the system
• Nuxt: Open in Browser - Open the dev server URL in your browser
• Nuxt: Show Version - Display detailed Nuxt version information (declared, installed, and running)

Show All Running Instances

View detailed information about all running Nuxt servers:

• PID (Process ID)
• Port and URL (e.g., http://localhost:3000)
• Working directory
• Full command
• Opens in a dedicated output panel for easy viewing

List and Kill Instances

The extension can detect all running Nuxt dev and preview servers on your Mac:

• Shows PID, port, and working directory for each instance
• Multi-select to kill specific instances
• Useful when you have multiple projects running

Accurate Process Counting

The extension now uses port-based detection to accurately count running instances:

• Only counts processes actually listening on ports
• Avoids counting duplicate/child processes
• Each port can only have one listening process

Version Detection

The extension shows comprehensive version information:

• Declared: Version range from package.json (e.g., ^3.10.0)
• Installed: Actual version in node_modules (e.g., 3.10.3)
• Running: Version for each active server (handles multiple projects)

This helps identify version mismatches and ensures you know exactly which Nuxt version is running.

Requirements

• macOS (currently Mac-only)
• Nuxt project with nuxt.config.{js,ts,mjs,mts}
• Node.js and npm/yarn/pnpm/bun

Extension Settings

This extension contributes the following settings (access via Preferences: Open Settings or Cmd/Ctrl + ,):

Auto-Kill and Cleanup

• nuxt-dev-server.autoKillTimeout (default: 0)

  • Automatically kill servers after X minutes (0 = disabled)
  • Useful for preventing runaway servers that consume resources
  • Example: Set to 120 to kill servers after 2 hours

• nuxt-dev-server.autoKillIdleTime (default: 0)

  • Automatically kill servers idle for X minutes (0 = disabled)
  • Idle = no file changes detected in the workspace
  • Example: Set to 30 to kill servers after 30 minutes of inactivity

• nuxt-dev-server.enableAutoCleanup (default: false)

  • Enable automatic cleanup warnings for extra Nuxt servers not managed by this extension
  • Shows notifications when unmanaged servers are detected

• nuxt-dev-server.maxExtraServers (default: 0)

  • Maximum number of extra Nuxt servers allowed (0 = unlimited)
  • Automatically kills oldest servers when this limit is exceeded
  • Example: Set to 2 to allow only 2 extra servers beyond your managed one

Process Management

• nuxt-dev-server.gracefulShutdownTimeout (default: 5000)
  • Time to wait (in milliseconds) for graceful shutdown before force killing
  • Min: 1000ms, Max: 30000ms
  • The extension tries SIGTERM first, then SIGKILL after this timeout

UI and Display

• nuxt-dev-server.statusBarUpdateInterval (default: 3000)

  • Status bar update interval in milliseconds
  • Min: 1000ms, Max: 60000ms
  • Lower values = more frequent updates but slightly higher CPU usage

• nuxt-dev-server.showNotifications (default: true)

  • Show notifications for server start/stop events
  • Disable if you prefer a quieter experience

Advanced

• nuxt-dev-server.customDevCommand (default: "")

  • Custom dev server command (leave empty for auto-detection)
  • Example: "npm run dev:custom" or "pnpm dev --host"

• nuxt-dev-server.defaultPort (default: 3000)

  • Default port to use if port cannot be detected from output
  • Min: 1, Max: 65535

Configuration Examples

Example 1: Auto-kill idle development servers

Perfect for developers who often forget to stop servers:

{
  "nuxt-dev-server.autoKillIdleTime": 30,
  "nuxt-dev-server.enableAutoCleanup": true
}

Example 2: Limit total servers and set hard timeout

Great for CI/CD environments or shared development machines:

{
  "nuxt-dev-server.maxExtraServers": 1,
  "nuxt-dev-server.autoKillTimeout": 120,
  "nuxt-dev-server.showNotifications": false
}

Example 3: Custom command with fast updates

For specialized setups:

{
  "nuxt-dev-server.customDevCommand": "npm run dev:custom",
  "nuxt-dev-server.statusBarUpdateInterval": 2000,
  "nuxt-dev-server.gracefulShutdownTimeout": 10000
}

Known Issues

• Currently only supports macOS (uses ps, lsof, pkill)
• Port detection may not work for all configurations
• Working directory detection requires lsof permission

Installation

From VS Code Marketplace

1. Open VS Code
2. Go to Extensions (Cmd+Shift+X / Ctrl+Shift+X)
3. Search for "Nuxt Dev Server Manager"
4. Click Install

From VSIX File

code --install-extension nuxt-dev-server-0.0.2.vsix

Development

Building and Packaging

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Compile TypeScript
npm run compile

# Watch for changes (development)
npm run watch

# Package the extension (compiles first)
npm run package:do

# Bump version (patch) and package
npm run package

# Bump version manually
npm run version:patch  # 0.0.2 -> 0.0.3
npm run version:minor  # 0.0.2 -> 0.1.0
npm run version:major  # 0.0.2 -> 1.0.0

Publishing to Marketplace

See PUBLISHING.md for detailed instructions on:

• Setting up your publisher account
• Creating and configuring PAT tokens
• Publishing via GitHub Actions
• Manual publishing with vsce

Release Notes

0.0.6 (Latest)

Major update with performance, security, and automation improvements:

New Features:

• Auto-kill servers after configurable timeout or idle time
• Activity tracking with file system monitoring for idle detection
• Graceful shutdown (SIGTERM before SIGKILL) for cleaner process termination
• Progress indicators for start/stop operations
• Automatic cleanup of extra servers with configurable limits
• Support for custom dev commands
• Configurable status bar update interval
• Optional notifications that can be disabled

Security Improvements:

• PID validation to prevent invalid process operations
• Safe JSON parsing with error handling
• Input sanitization for all shell commands
• Better error handling throughout

Performance & Reliability:

• Fixed resource leaks (output channels now properly managed)
• Single reusable output channel instead of creating multiple
• Better process state management
• Improved cleanup on extension deactivation
• Configuration hot-reload support

UI Enhancements:

• Better status indicators with progress feedback
• Improved notification system
• Timestamped log entries in output channel
• More informative error messages

0.0.5

• Improved process killing
• Bug fixes

0.0.1 - 0.0.4

Initial releases with core features:

• Status bar integration
• Start/stop/restart commands
• Multi-instance tracking and selective killing
• Version detection
• Browser integration
• Accurate port-based process detection

License

MIT License - See LICENSE file for details

Author

Patrick Stuart

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Enjoy managing your Nuxt dev servers!