# Vitals features: everything the Activity Monitor alternative for Mac does

Canonical page: https://vitalsmac.com/features

Thirteen things an activity monitor should do and Activity Monitor does not, each with a page of its own. Each link below is the page's Markdown copy; the same page without .md is the one to cite.

- [Apps, not processes](https://vitalsmac.com/features/apps-not-processes.md): Every helper under its app, so "what is using my memory?" gets a one-line answer.
- [Coding agents](https://vitalsmac.com/features/agents.md): Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI and the rest: each session with its project, what it is doing, and what it started.
- [AI usage limits](https://vitalsmac.com/features/ai-usage-limits.md): How much is left of Claude, Codex, Copilot and the rest, when each resets, and whether you will make it there.
- [MCP server](https://vitalsmac.com/features/mcp-server.md): Your assistant asks what is running, which app is behind a number and what is on a port, instead of reading a process list.
- [Menu bar monitor](https://vitalsmac.com/features/menu-bar.md): CPU, memory, GPU, network, temperature and more, each its own item, red while under strain, with the apps behind every number one click away.
- [History](https://vitalsmac.com/features/history.md): CPU, memory, energy, disk and network from the last hour to the last year, with the apps that used the most, hour by hour.
- [Alerts](https://vitalsmac.com/features/alerts.md): An app keeping the CPU busy, growing in memory, or hammering the disk or network gets named before the fans tell you.
- [Dev servers and ports](https://vitalsmac.com/features/dev-servers-and-ports.md): Every process under the project it came from, with its ports, and the server left running since Tuesday pointed out.
- [Docker containers](https://vitalsmac.com/features/docker.md): Inside the one big Docker process: every container's memory, CPU, network and ports, with Stop on each.
- [Volume mixer](https://vitalsmac.com/features/volume-mixer.md): Turn the meeting up and the music down: a slider for every app with sound, the mic, and your Bluetooth batteries.
- [Temperature and fans](https://vitalsmac.com/features/temperature-and-fans.md): CPU and GPU temperature and fan speed, the apps making it hot, and a fan you can hold at a speed.
- [Battery](https://vitalsmac.com/features/battery.md): Energy by app, the apps holding sleep off and why, and the battery's health, cycles and temperature.
- [GPU and Neural Engine](https://vitalsmac.com/features/gpu-and-neural-engine.md): How hard the GPU and the Neural Engine are working, which apps are using them, and a chart of the last minutes.

## Also included

- **Processes grouped by app.** Every helper process is added to the app that launched it, so a working Mac shows about 60 apps instead of about 1,000 processes, each with one figure for memory, CPU, energy, disk and network.
- **A tab per subsystem.** Overview, CPU, Memory, Disk, Network, GPU, Neural Engine, Battery, Sound, Bluetooth and Projects, plus Containers while Docker runs, each with its live figures and the apps behind them.
- **Your coding agents, and what is left of your plans.** An Agents tab with every running coding agent, Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI and the rest: its project, what it is doing right now, and everything it started, with Quit for the session and all of it together. For Claude, Codex, GitHub Copilot, Cursor, Antigravity, Grok, Ollama and OpenCode, how much of each plan is left, when it resets and whether you are on pace, for every account signed in on the Mac, and the tokens Claude Code and Codex used today and this week.
- **An MCP server for Claude, Codex and Cursor.** Claude, Claude Code, Codex, Cursor and any assistant that speaks MCP can ask what is running, which app is behind a number, what is on a port, and what the last 30 days looked like. It cannot quit anything by itself: Vitals asks you first. Off until you turn it on.
- **A Neural Engine tab.** How hard the Neural Engine is working, which apps are using it, and a chart of the last minutes, in the window, the menu bar and on the Overview. On Macs with Apple silicon.
- **Inside your browser.** Click Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Edge, Brave, Arc or Dia to see its memory and CPU split into tabs, extensions, graphics and the browser itself. Slack, VS Code and similar apps are split by window.
- **Up to a year of history.** CPU, memory, energy, disk and network from the last hour to the last year, with the apps that used the most, ranked hour by hour for the last two days. Keep 30 days, 90 days, 6 months or a year.
- **What keeps the Mac awake, and the fans on.** The Battery tab lists the apps holding sleep off, what each said it is doing and for how long. When the Mac runs hot, Vitals names the apps behind it, with Quit beside each.
- **Alerts for misbehaving apps.** A notification when an app keeps the CPU busy, keeps growing in memory, or hammers the disk or network.
- **Dev servers and open ports, by project.** Processes grouped by the project folder they run in, with their listening ports, and dev servers left idle for days pointed out and offered to stop.
- **A menu bar you arrange.** Every readout can be its own menu bar item: CPU, memory, GPU, network, disk, temperature, fan speed or battery, as a value, a graph or both, ⌘-dragged into any order. Behind it, a dropdown with every metric, the busiest apps, and a tab for each metric.
- **Make it yours.** Vitals’ own colors, Monochrome, or a set made for color blindness. The numbers in Rounded, San Francisco, SF Mono, New York or any font on the Mac, light to bold. Comfortable or compact spacing, charts of the last 5, 15 or 30 minutes, light or dark, and exported pictures in the same look.
- **Arrange the window and the dropdown.** Choose the window’s tabs and their order, and show, hide or reorder the sections, cards and lists on every tab. The dropdown has its own tiles and a List layout with one line per metric. Reset puts everything back.
- **Docker containers.** A Containers tab with every Docker container’s memory, CPU, network and ports, in the window and the dropdown, and Stop on each, after a confirmation.
- **Sound and Bluetooth tabs.** The Mac’s output device and level with a slider for every app playing sound, the microphone and the apps using it, and every connected Bluetooth device with its battery, lowest first.
- **Units you choose.** Celsius or Fahrenheit, bytes or bits for network speed, and CPU per core or per Mac, each with a live example in Settings.
- **Temperatures and fans.** CPU and GPU temperature on Intel and Apple silicon, M5 included, and fan speed. Hold any fan at a speed you choose, and hand it back to the Mac in one click. The menu bar temperature can follow the CPU, the GPU or the hottest sensor.
- **Quit and force quit.** Quit an app or a single process, always after a confirmation.
- **Keyboard shortcuts and Shortcuts actions.** Open the dropdown or the window from any app, and get a reading or the busiest app from the Shortcuts app.
- **Export as an image.** Save or copy a snapshot of the Mac as a 1200 × 630 share card or a dashboard image.
- **In the Dock, if you like.** Show in Dock keeps Vitals in the Dock like Activity Monitor. Opened by hand it shows its window; at login it stays in the menu bar.