Stop Guessing Ports. Start Coding.
The missing visual dashboard for your local development environment. Manage all your dev servers right inside VS Code.

I built this dev server manager because I got tired of losing minutes to invisible local processes and occupied ports. The problem was never "how to run dev." The problem was visibility. I needed one panel that showed what was alive, what was dead, and what needed to be killed before work could continue. That meant a built-in port scanner inside my vscode extension workflow instead of another terminal ritual.
>I do not trust local environments that I cannot see.
Before you continue //
If your terminal says a port is in use but you cannot identify the process quickly, start with the
dashboard first. Visibility beats guesswork.
Why this dev server manager exists
When a local stack grows beyond one app, the old "open terminal tabs and remember everything" method collapses.
Pain points this guide solves:
- orphaned dev processes after crashes
- silent port collisions in parallel projects
- monorepo commands that hide which package owns which port
- wasted context switching between terminal and editor
Core capabilities
- Port scanner: detects common development ports and active listeners
- Visual dashboard: one view for process status and control
- Start/stop controls: trigger scripts without hunting command history
- Monorepo awareness: detects Turborepo and workspace structures
- Auto refresh: updates every few seconds for live state

System Overview
Mission Control for Localhost
Get a bird's-eye view of all your servers in a beautiful grid layout. See status, ports, and URLs at a glance with one-click controls.

Installation
VS Code Marketplace (recommended)
- Open VS Code
- Open Extensions (
Ctrl+Shift+X) - Search for
Server Cook - Click Install
Cursor and Antigravity (Open VSX / VSIX)
- Open Extensions view
- Use Install from VSIX... if you downloaded a package
- Or install from Open VSX listing directly
- Reload editor if prompted
Quick start workflow
- Open Command Palette (
Ctrl+Shift+P/Cmd+Shift+P) - Run
Server Cook: Open Server Dashboard - Confirm detected servers and ports
- Start/stop processes from the dashboard controls
bash
Monorepo and Turborepo support
This dev server manager detects
turbo.json, workspace configs, and package-level scripts to map processes to the correct app.Detection model:
- identify monorepo shape
- discover workspace packages
- resolve
devscripts to executable commands - map active ports back to owning packages
Supported ports
The extension scans common development ports such as
3000, 3001, 3002-3003, 4200, 5173, 8080, 8000, and 5000.Requirements
- VS Code
v1.74.0+ - Cursor (VS Code-compatible)
- Antigravity (VS Code-compatible)
Troubleshooting pattern
Fast recovery pattern //
If a process will not stop, terminate it from your OS task manager and rerun detection. Then
restart only the package you need.
Build from source
bash
Final note
I built this to end the "where is that process even running" cycle. Use it when local state gets noisy and you want fast, visual control without ritual.
Article Stats
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