PortKiller

<table> <tr> <td width="140" valign="top"> <img src="assets/app-logo-color.png" alt="PortKiller" width="120"> </td> <td valign="middle"> <h1>PortKiller</h1> <p><em>Stop hunting. Start killing.</em><br> That rogue process hogging port 3000? Gone in one click.</p> <a href="https://github.com/gupsammy/PortKiller/releases/latest/download/PortKiller.dmg"> <img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/⬇_Download-22c55e?style=for-the-badge&logoColor=white" alt="Download"> </a> &nbsp; <img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/macOS_10.15+-555?style=flat-square" alt="Platform"> <img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/MIT-555?style=flat-square" alt="License"> </td> </tr> </table>

Every developer knows the drill: lsof -i :3000, squint at the output, find the PID, kill -9 1234, repeat. PortKiller lives in your menu bar and does all that for you. One click. Done.

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Features

• One-Click Process Termination — Kill any process hogging your dev ports instantly from the menu bar
• Docker Integration — See which containers are using ports and stop them directly
• Homebrew Services — Detect and stop brew services (PostgreSQL, Redis, MySQL) without touching the terminal
• Desktop Notifications — Get notified when new processes start listening on your ports
• Project Detection — Shows which git project each process belongs to
• Smart Graceful Shutdown — SIGTERM first, SIGKILL only if needed
• Native Menu Bar App — Lightweight, adapts to light/dark mode, zero resource usage when idle
• Pre-configured for Dev Ports — Monitors Node.js, React, Vite, Django, Flask, PostgreSQL, Redis, MongoDB, and more out of the box
• Fully Configurable — Add or remove port ranges via simple JSON config
• Auto-Update Notifications — Get notified when a new version is available

Screenshots

<img src="screenshots/ui.png" alt="PortKiller Menu UI" width="400"> <br> <em>Menu bar interface showing active processes, Docker containers, and Homebrew services</em> <img src="screenshots/notifications.png" alt="Desktop Notifications" width="400"> <br> <em>Desktop notifications when new processes start listening on your ports</em>

Installation

1. Download PortKiller.dmg
2. Open the DMG and drag PortKiller to Applications
3. First launch (macOS security): Run this in Terminal, then open the app:

   xattr -cr /Applications/PortKiller.app
   

4. After that, launch normally from Applications or Spotlight

The app appears in your menu bar — click to see active port listeners.

Build from Source

git clone https://github.com/gupsammy/PortKiller.git
cd PortKiller
cargo build --release
./target/release/portkiller

Requires Rust 1.85+ (2024 edition).

Configuration

PortKiller creates ~/.portkiller.json on first run. Edit via the menu bar (Edit Configuration) or directly:

{
  "monitoring": {
    "poll_interval_secs": 2,
    "port_ranges": [[3000, 3010], [5432, 5432], [8080, 8090]],
    "show_project_names": true
  },
  "integrations": {
    "brew_enabled": true,
    "docker_enabled": true
  },
  "notifications": {
    "enabled": true
  },
  "system": {
    "launch_at_login": false
  },
  "updates": {
    "check_enabled": true,
    "check_interval_hours": 24
  }
}

Changes apply automatically via hot-reload.

Uninstall

Quit PortKiller, move PortKiller.app from Applications to Trash, optionally rm ~/.portkiller.json

Platform Support

macOS 10.15 (Catalina) and later — Intel and Apple Silicon

Development

# Debug build with logging
RUST_LOG=debug cargo run

# Code quality
cargo fmt && cargo clippy

# Install pre-commit hook (auto-formats on commit)
./scripts/install-hooks.sh

Feature Requests & Bug Reports

Have an idea or found a bug? Open an issue — contributions welcome!

License

MIT License — do whatever you want with it.

Acknowledgments

Built with tray-icon, winit, and nix.

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<p align="center"><em>Made for developers who have better things to do than hunt PIDs</em></p>