wharfy

See who is listening on your dev ports — and which app or AI agent started them — then kill them safely. CLI + MCP server. macOS.

$ wharfy list
PORT   PID    USER      PROCESS ← PARENTS
3000   51530  egebilge  node ← claude ← zsh ← Terminal
3001   51612  egebilge  node ← cursor ← launchd
5432   1201   egebilge  docker: papyro-app-db-1

The parent chain answers the question other port killers can't: who opened this? A port started by Claude Code shows claude in the chain; one started by Cursor shows cursor.

Install

npm install -g wharfy

Related MCP server: Mac MCP

CLI

wharfy list             # human-readable table
wharfy list --json      # machine-readable
wharfy kill 3000        # SIGTERM, then SIGKILL after 2s if it won't die
wharfy kill --all-dev   # clear every dev port at once
wharfy kill 3000 --tree # stop the whole npm-run-dev tree, not just the leaf
wharfy wait 3000        # block until the port answers (CI, scripts)

kill exits 1 when nothing listens on the port.

MCP server (for AI agents)

Claude Code:

claude mcp add wharfy -- npx -y wharfy mcp

Cursor — .cursor/mcp.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "wharfy": { "command": "npx", "args": ["-y", "wharfy", "mcp"] }
  }
}

Tools:

• list_ports — listening TCP ports with owning process, user, parent chain, project name (read-only)

• check_port — who owns one port

• kill_process — stop whatever listens on a port; tree and force options (destructive, annotated as such — your client will confirm)

• wait_for_port — block until a server answers

• suggest_free_port — next free port from a preferred one

• exposure_report — which servers are bound to 0.0.0.0 and reachable from your LAN

Menu bar app

A native macOS menu bar companion — port list with real app icons, live CPU/RAM, LAN-exposure warnings, safe tree-kill, Docker awareness: wharfy.dev

Why not kill-port?

kill-port sends kill -9 immediately through a shell pipeline and hasn't been updated since 2022. wharfy parses lsof -F machine output in-process, terminates gracefully (SIGTERM → 2s → SIGKILL), validates input, and tells you who owned the port.

macOS only. MIT.