pstop — Process Explorer

Show top resource-consuming processes:

!pstop top 2>&1 || echo "pstop not installed — brew install lu-zhengda/tap/pstop"

Analyze the output above. Flag any processes consuming excessive CPU (>50%) or memory (>1 GB). Identify what each process is and whether it looks normal. Offer to get more details with pstop info <pid> or kill with pstop kill <pid>.

Commands

| Command | Purpose | Example | |---------|---------|---------| | pstop list | List all running processes | pstop list --sort cpu | | pstop list --user <name> | Filter by user | pstop list --user root | | pstop top | Show top N processes by CPU | pstop top -n 20 | | pstop top --battery | Highlight battery-draining processes | pstop top --battery | | pstop top --format spark | Show CPU/mem sparkline trends | pstop top --format spark | | pstop find <query> | Search processes by name or command | pstop find node | | pstop info <pid> | Detailed process info (files, ports, children) | pstop info 1234 | | pstop kill <pid> | Kill process (SIGTERM) | pstop kill 1234 | | pstop kill <pid> --force | Force kill (SIGKILL) | pstop kill 1234 --force | | pstop tree | Display process tree | pstop tree | | pstop dev | Group processes by dev stack (Node, Python, Docker, etc.) | pstop dev | | pstop watch <pid> | Live-monitor a process | pstop watch 1234 --interval 5 | | pstop watch --alert | Threshold-based alerting | pstop watch --alert --cpu 80 --mem 90 | | pstop crashes | Recent crash reports and app hangs | pstop crashes --last 7d | | pstop crashes info <path> | Detailed crash report with backtrace | pstop crashes info /path/to/report.ips |

Crash Reports

View recent crash reports, app hangs, and kernel panics:

# Show recent crash reports
pstop crashes

# Filter by time range
pstop crashes --last 7d

# Filter by process name
pstop crashes --process Safari

# Combine filters
pstop crashes --last 24h --process node

# View detailed crash report with backtrace
pstop crashes info /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/Safari_2026-02-15.ips

# JSON output for scripting
pstop crashes --json

Threshold Alerting

Monitor processes and alert when thresholds are exceeded:

# Alert when any process exceeds 80% CPU or 90% memory
pstop watch --alert --cpu 80 --mem 90

# Exit code 1 when thresholds exceeded — useful in scripts and lanchr agents
pstop watch --alert --cpu 95 --mem 95

Combine with lanchr create --template monitor-cpu to set up persistent alerting.

Sparkline Format

View inline CPU/memory trend history:

pstop top --format spark

Renders compact sparkline graphs alongside each process, showing resource usage over time.

Sort Options

Use --sort with list to sort by: cpu, mem, pid, name (default: cpu).

Safety Guidelines

• Always info before kill: Check what a process does before terminating
• Prefer SIGTERM (default): Allows graceful shutdown. Only use --force as last resort
• Use find for discovery: Safer than guessing PIDs

TUI Mode

Launch pstop without arguments for an interactive process dashboard.