ports-monitor

ports-monitor is a cross-platform Node.js CLI to find open ports, filter them fast, and stop the owning process.

• Check open ports on Linux, macOS, and Windows
• Filter by port, PID, protocol, process, address, or search query
• Kill a process by port (or by PID) with graceful-first behavior
• Use either script-friendly flags or an interactive terminal view

Supports Linux, macOS, and Windows.

Why ports-monitor

• Works across Linux, macOS, and Windows with one command
• Fast for day-to-day dev tasks like "what is using port 3000?"
• Safe stop flow: graceful first, then force only when needed
• Useful for local debugging, CI agents, and remote servers

Install

From npm:

npm install -g ports-monitor

Or from this repo:

npm link

Then run:

ports-monitor --help

Shortcut alias:

pm --help

Local Development

From this repo:

npm install
npm run check

Usage

List ports:

ports-monitor list
ports-monitor list --process node
ports-monitor list --port 3000
ports-monitor list --protocol tcp --state LISTEN
ports-monitor list --json

Stop by port or PID:

ports-monitor stop --port 3000 --yes
ports-monitor stop --pid 1234 --yes
ports-monitor stop --pid 1234 --force --yes
ports-monitor stop --port 3000 --dry-run --yes --json

Interactive mode:

ports-monitor interactive

Common Tasks

Find what process is using a specific port:

ports-monitor list --port 3000

Kill whatever is running on a specific port:

ports-monitor stop --port 3000 --yes

Kill by PID:

ports-monitor stop --pid 1234 --yes

Preview stop targets without killing:

ports-monitor stop --port 3000 --dry-run --yes --json

Commands

list

ports-monitor list [--port N] [--pid N] [--process NAME] [--protocol tcp|udp] [--state STATE] [--address TEXT] [--query TEXT] [--json]

stop

ports-monitor stop [--port N | --pid N] [--protocol tcp|udp] [--force] [--dry-run] [--yes] [--json]

Default stop behavior is graceful first, then force kill if needed.

interactive

Simple terminal loop with live refresh, free-text filtering, and stop actions.

Notes

• Some processes may require elevated privileges to inspect or stop.
• On Linux, the CLI uses ss first and falls back to netstat.
• On macOS, the CLI uses lsof.
• On Windows, the CLI uses netstat and tasklist.

Links

• npm: https://www.npmjs.com/package/ports-monitor
• GitHub: https://github.com/mrbeandev/ports-monitor
• Website: https://mrbean.dev