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Localhost MCP

Community Other

Inspect, manage and kill local dev servers: see what listens on each port, diagnose port conflicts, find zombie processes and kill by PID or port.

Source code Documentation

Install

The installation steps are in the documentation below. Documentation

Documentation

From the project's README on GitHub, refreshed weekly. Links open on GitHub.

Contents
  1. localhost-mcp
  2. Why
  3. Install
  4. Tools
  5. Sample output
  6. Safety
  7. Frameworks detected
  8. Platform support
  9. CLI usage
  10. Build from source
  11. License

localhost-mcp

MCP server that inspects, manages, and kills local dev servers. Stop guessing what's on :3000.

Pairs with terminal-history-mcp — together they give your AI agent full memory of your dev environment: what you ran, what's running.

Why

Every dev hits these daily:

  • Error: listen EADDRINUSE :::3000 — what's holding the port?
  • 5 forgotten node / vite / next PIDs from last week eating RAM
  • Switching projects → no idea which dev servers still running
  • lsof -i :3000, kill -9 <pid>, repeat

localhost-mcp makes it one tool call.

Install

npm install -g localhost-mcp

Wire into Claude Code:

claude mcp add --scope user localhost -- localhost-mcp

Or any MCP-compatible client. The command runs as a stdio MCP server.

Tools

ToolPurpose
list_dev_serversAll listening dev servers w/ port, pid, framework, project, uptime, mem, cpu
port_infoInspect single port — who holds it
kill_serverKill by pid or port. Dry-run by default; pass confirm=true to execute
find_zombiesDetect long-running, idle, memory-heavy dev servers
port_conflictWhy is port X busy + 5 free alternatives nearby

Sample output

{
  "port": 3000,
  "pid": 48211,
  "process": "node",
  "cmdline": "next dev",
  "cwd": "/Users/me/code/myapp",
  "project_name": "myapp",
  "framework": "next.js",
  "uptime_seconds": 14523,
  "memory_mb": 412,
  "cpu_pct": 0.3,
  "user": "me"
}

Safety

  • kill_server defaults to dry-run. Must pass confirm=true.
  • Refuses to kill PIDs < 1000 (system processes).
  • Refuses processes outside the dev whitelist (node, python, ruby, go, deno, bun, php, java, rails, vite, next, etc).
  • SIGTERM first, escalates to SIGKILL after 5s timeout.

Frameworks detected

next.js, vite, nuxt, remix, astro, webpack-dev-server, esbuild, create-react-app, express, fastify, koa, hono, rails, django, flask, fastapi, uvicorn, gunicorn, deno, bun, php-builtin, jekyll, hugo.

Falls back to package.json sniffing when the cmdline is generic (node server.js).

Platform support

  • macOS — full support (uses lsof)
  • Linux — full support (uses lsof + /proc)
  • Windows — basic port scan only (uses netstat); cwd / framework detection limited

CLI usage

localhost-mcp list      # JSON list of all dev servers
localhost-mcp zombies   # JSON list of zombie candidates
localhost-mcp           # Start MCP stdio server

Build from source

git clone https://github.com/hasanjahidul/localhost-mcp.git
cd localhost-mcp
npm install
npm run build
node dist/cli.js list

License

MIT

Frequently asked questions

What is Localhost MCP?

Inspect, manage and kill local dev servers: see what listens on each port, diagnose port conflicts, find zombie processes and kill by PID or port.

How do I install Localhost MCP?

Follow the installation steps in its documentation, shown on this page and in its repository.

Is Localhost MCP open source?

Yes. Its code is on GitHub under the MIT license.

Who maintains Localhost MCP?

It is published by HasanJahidul. AI.tn lists it but does not maintain or endorse it.

From the community awesome-mcp-servers lists and the project's GitHub repository. Listing is not an endorsement: review a server's code and permissions before giving it access to your data.