Parker Rex
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Port Killer

macOS menu bar app to view and kill dev server ports with one click.

Overview

A Tauri 2.0 macOS app with a React frontend and Rust backend. The tray icon shows active development ports with process names, one-click kill buttons, search, filtering, and auto-refresh.

Problem

Port conflicts require memorizing lsof commands, finding PIDs, and killing processes manually. Existing GUI options were too heavy for the job.

Solution

A single-purpose menu bar utility that shows active dev ports and kills them with one click.

Lessons learned

  • Tauri makes single-purpose utilities practical because the binary stays small.
  • Well-scoped problems are strong candidates for AI-assisted coding.
  • Menu bar apps have high utility-to-complexity ratio.