🖥️ PortWatch — Real-Time Port & Process Monitor

A sleek, cross-platform desktop app to monitor, filter, and kill processes using dev ports — with conflict alerts and customizable port lists via UI.

Built with Python + Textual TUI — works on Windows, macOS, Linux.

✨ Features

✅ Live Process Table — See all running processes, ports, PIDs, and statuses
✅ Dev Port Conflict Detection — Highlights ports you’ve marked as “dev” (e.g., 3000, 8080)
✅ Desktop Notifications — Get alerts when dev ports are in use ⚠️
✅ One-Click Kill — Terminate any process with confirmation
✅ Smart Filters — Filter by “All”, “New”, or “Conflict”
✅ Built-in Port Config UI — No manual .portconfig editing! Add/remove/reset ports via GUI
✅ Persistent Config — Your dev port list is saved automatically to .portconfig
✅ Cross-Platform — Works on Windows, macOS, Linux

🚀 Quick Start

1. Install

pip install portwatch

Or if installing from source:

git clone https://github.com/MadushankaRajapaksha/portwatch
cd portwatch
pip install -e .

Requires Python 3.9+

2. Run

portwatch

→ Opens interactive TUI app.

🎯 How to Use

🔍 Main Screen

You’ll see a live table of processes using network ports:

⚙️ Manage Dev Ports (NO MANUAL FILE EDITING!)

Click the “⚙️ Config” button → opens Port Config Modal

• ➕ Add Port — Type port number (e.g., 3001) → click “Add Port”
• 🗑️ Delete Port — Select row → click “Delete Selected”
• 🔄 Reset to Default — Restores common dev ports (3000, 8080, 5432, etc.)
• ❌ Close — Saves automatically — no manual .portconfig editing needed!

✅ All changes are saved instantly to .portconfig — you never need to touch the file.

🧭 Filter Processes

Use the filter bar:

• Text Filter — Type app name or port (e.g., “node” or “3000”)
• Toggle Filters:
  • All — Show everything
  • 🆕 New — Only processes appeared since last scan
  • ⚠️ Conflict — Only processes using your marked dev ports

☠️ Kill a Process

1. Click any row in the table (or use arrow keys + Enter)
2. Confirm “Kill?” in popup
3. Process is terminated — table auto-refreshes

🔔 Notifications

When a process starts using a dev port (e.g., 3000), you’ll get a desktop notification:

“⚠️ Port 3000 in use by node.exe”

❗ If notifications don’t work, you’ll see a one-time alert modal explaining it.

📁 Configuration

Your dev port list is stored in .portconfig in the app directory — but you should never edit it manually.

Example auto-generated .portconfig:

'3000': React Dev
'8080': Backend API
'5432': PostgreSQL
'27017': MongoDB

✍️ Use the “⚙️ Config” UI to manage this — it’s safer and instantly reloads in the app.

🛠️ Troubleshooting

❌ “Notifications not working”

• Windows: Make sure “Focus Assist” is off
• macOS: Go to System Settings → Notifications → Allow notifications for Terminal/Python
• Linux: Install libnotify-bin → sudo apt install libnotify-bin

App will show a warning modal if notifications are disabled.

🐛 App crashes or shows errors

Run in dev mode for logs:

textual run -d portwatch

📦 Dependencies

• textual — TUI framework
• psutil — Process/port scanning
• plyer — Desktop notifications
• pyyaml — Config file handling

📄 License

MIT — Use freely for personal or commercial projects.

🙌 Contributing

PRs welcome! Especially for:

• Export/import config
• Process graphs
• Dark/light mode toggle
• Keyboard shortcuts

💬 Support

Open an issue on GitHub or message @yourusername.

🔐 No more manual .portconfig editing — Use the UI. It’s faster, safer, and updates live.

✅ Save this as README.md in your project root.

🧩 Bonus: Add to setup.py or pyproject.toml

If distributing via pip:

[project]
name = "portwatch"
version = "0.1.0"
description = "Real-time port and process monitor with dev port alerts"
readme = "README.md"