PortForge

Find and free busy development ports in seconds.

PortForge helps developers quickly answer the question: what is using port 3000? It shows the process, PID, command, and gives you a safe command when you want to free the port.

Install

pip install portforge

The installed command is:

portforge

Usage

Check one port:

portforge 3000

Scan common development ports:

portforge scan

Scan custom ports:

portforge scan -p 3000,5173,8000

Output JSON:

portforge 3000 --json

Write output to a file:

portforge 3000 -o ports.json --json

Free a busy port after confirmation:

portforge kill 3000 --yes

Safety notes

• Review the displayed process name, PID, user, and command before killing anything.
• Prefer the normal kill command first; use --force only when a process does not stop cleanly.
• Avoid running kill commands against system services or processes you do not recognize.
• When using --json or --output, review files before sharing them because command paths can include local usernames or project names.

Platform support

PortForge is designed for local development workflows on Unix-like systems where process and port inspection tools are available. Windows support is planned, but it may require different process lookup behavior.

CLI shortcuts

• -p, --ports: comma-separated ports for scan
• -j, --json: output JSON
• -o, --output: write output to file
• -y, --yes: confirm port-freeing action
• -f, --force: use a stronger termination signal

Example

$ portforge 3000
Port 3000 is busy

PID      USER         NAME             COMMAND
18422    asim         node             npm run dev

Actions:
  portforge kill 3000

$ portforge scan
PortForge scan

PORT     STATUS   PROCESS
3000     busy     node
3001     free     -
5173     free     -
8000     busy     python

Development

python3 -m unittest discover -s tests -v

Roadmap

• Check a single port
• Scan common development ports
• JSON output
• Safe port freeing with explicit confirmation
• Interactive confirmation
• Project directory detection from process cwd
• Windows support improvements
• Rich colored output

License

MIT