Quick Start

Install

macOS / Linux

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -LsSf https://github.com/frectonz/pm3/releases/download/0.1.3/pm3-installer.sh | sh

Windows (PowerShell)

powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -c "irm https://github.com/frectonz/pm3/releases/download/0.1.3/pm3-installer.ps1 | iex"

Manual Download

Pre-built binaries are available on the GitHub Releases page for:

Apple Silicon macOS (aarch64-apple-darwin)
Intel macOS (x86_64-apple-darwin)
x64 Linux (x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu)
ARM64 Linux (aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu)
x64 Windows (x86_64-pc-windows-msvc)

Create a `pm3.toml`

Create a pm3.toml file in your project root:

pm3.toml

[web]
command = "python -m http.server 8080"

[worker]
command = "bash -c 'while true; do echo \"processing task...\"; sleep 2; done'"

This defines two processes: a simple HTTP server and a background worker.

Start Your Processes

pm3 start

pm3 will start a background daemon (if one isn't already running) and launch both processes. You'll see output like:

started: web, worker
┌────────┬───────┬───────┬────────┬──────┬──────┬────────┬──────────┐
│ name   │ group │ pid   │ status │ cpu  │ mem  │ uptime │ restarts │
├────────┼───────┼───────┼────────┼──────┼──────┼────────┼──────────┤
│ web    │ -     │ 42150 │ online │ 0.0% │ 5.2M │ 0s     │ 0        │
│ worker │ -     │ 42151 │ online │ 0.0% │ 3.1M │ 0s     │ 0        │
└────────┴───────┴───────┴────────┴──────┴──────┴────────┴──────────┘

Check Status

pm3 list

┌────────┬───────┬───────┬────────┬──────┬──────┬────────┬──────────┐
│ name   │ group │ pid   │ status │ cpu  │ mem  │ uptime │ restarts │
├────────┼───────┼───────┼────────┼──────┼──────┼────────┼──────────┤
│ web    │ -     │ 42150 │ online │ 1.2% │ 5.2M │ 15s    │ 0        │
│ worker │ -     │ 42151 │ online │ 0.5% │ 3.1M │ 15s    │ 0        │
└────────┴───────┴───────┴────────┴──────┴──────┴────────┴──────────┘

View Logs

Tail the logs for a specific process:

pm3 log web -f

This follows the log output in real-time, similar to tail -f. Press Ctrl+C to stop.

Launch the TUI

For a full interactive experience:

pm3 tui

The TUI gives you a real-time dashboard with process status, logs, and controls — all from your terminal. See the TUI Guide for keyboard shortcuts.

Stop Everything

Stop all processes:

pm3 stop

Or shut down the daemon entirely:

pm3 kill

Next Steps

Configuration Reference — Learn every pm3.toml option.
CLI Reference — All commands and flags.
Full-Stack App Guide — A real-world multi-process setup.

Quick Start

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