Claude-code-settings kill-dev-process

Kill orphaned dev servers, browsers, and port-hogging processes spawned during development. Use when ports are occupied, too many node/browser processes are running, or you want a fresh start.

install
source · Clone the upstream repo
git clone https://github.com/nokonoko1203/claude-code-settings
Claude Code · Install into ~/.claude/skills/
T=$(mktemp -d) && git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/nokonoko1203/claude-code-settings "$T" && mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && cp -r "$T/skills/kill-dev-process" ~/.claude/skills/nokonoko1203-claude-code-settings-kill-dev-process && rm -rf "$T"
manifest: skills/kill-dev-process/SKILL.md
source content

Dev Environment Cleanup

Safely clean up processes accumulated during development (dev servers, browsers, node, etc.).

Usage:

/kill-dev-process
Usage:
/kill-dev-process $MODE

$ARGUMENTS
to specify mode:

  • ports
    — Only processes occupying listening ports
  • browsers
    — Only browser processes
  • all
    — Process all categories at once
  • No argument — Interactive selection

Execution Steps

Step 1: Investigate the Current State

Run the following commands in parallel to assess the current situation:

# List listening TCP ports (macOS)
lsof -iTCP -sTCP:LISTEN -P -n 2>/dev/null | grep -v "^COMMAND"
# Dev-related node processes
ps aux | grep -E '[n]ode|[t]sx|[v]ite|[n]ext|[n]uxt|[e]sbuild|[t]sc |[b]un ' | grep -v 'grep'
# Browser processes (including those from Playwright/Chrome DevTools MCP)
ps aux | grep -E '[C]hromium|[c]hrome|[C]hrome Helper|[p]laywright' | grep -v 'grep'

Step 2: Classify and Display Results

Classify detected processes into the following categories and display in table format:

CategoryCriteria
Dev ServersProcesses listening on ports 3000-9999 via node/bun/deno
BrowsersChromium, Chrome, Playwright-related processes
Build ToolsResidual esbuild, tsc, webpack, turbopack, etc.
OtherAnything else requiring user confirmation

Display format example:

## Detected Processes

### Dev Servers (3 items)
PID    PORT   COMMAND              STARTED
12345  3000   node next-server     10:30
12346  5173   node vite            11:45
12347  8080   node express         09:00

### Browsers (5 items)
PID    COMMAND                      MEM
23456  Chromium --headless           120M
23457  Chrome Helper (Renderer)       80M
...

Step 3: Safety Check

Processes that must NEVER be killed:

  • System processes (PID < 100, root-owned system daemons)
  • Databases (postgres, mysql, redis, mongo)
  • Docker / containerd
  • SSH / sshd
  • IDE itself (VSCode, Cursor) — Chrome helpers ARE eligible targets
  • Long-running processes that appear to be intentionally started by the user

If any of the above are detected, exclude them and display a notice about the exclusion.

Step 4: Confirm with the User

Unless the mode is

all
, use
AskUserQuestion
to get confirmation:

  • Allow the user to select "Kill / Skip" for each category
  • Support keeping specific PIDs alive

Step 5: Terminate Processes

  1. First attempt graceful shutdown with
    kill -TERM <PID>
  2. Wait 1 second and check survival:
    kill -0 <PID> 2>/dev/null
  3. If still alive, force kill with
    kill -9 <PID>
  4. Display termination results
# Example: graceful shutdown
kill -TERM 12345 12346 12347

# Check survival after 1 second
sleep 1
for pid in 12345 12346 12347; do
  kill -0 $pid 2>/dev/null && echo "PID $pid still alive, force killing..." && kill -9 $pid
done

Step 6: Result Report

Display a summary of the cleanup results:

## Cleanup Complete

- Terminated: 8 processes
- Freed ports: 3000, 5173, 8080
- Skipped: 2 (postgres, redis)
- Failed: 0

Notes

  • Assumes macOS environment (
    lsof
    flags, etc.)
  • Always get user confirmation before killing processes (including
    all
    mode)
  • Only use actual PIDs obtained from investigation results for
    kill
    commands
  • Investigation and termination are separate steps — never pipe them together (prevents accidental kills)