Everything Vitals sees, in your terminal.
Type vitals and get the apps using your Mac, the ports and dev servers each project holds, your coding agents and what is left of your AI plans. A table you can read, JSON your scripts can parse, and nothing stopped without your yes.
The numbers are simulated: a web page cannot read your Mac, and should not.
It comes with the app, or with Homebrew.
The command is inside Vitals. Turn on Let AI Assistants Ask Vitals in Settings → Integrations and Vitals puts vitals on your PATH, with its manual page and tab completion. Or install the app and the command together with one Homebrew line.
- Linked into
/opt/homebrew/binor/usr/local/bin - A manual page:
man vitals - Tab completion for zsh, bash and fish
- One Homebrew line installs the app and the command
What the window shows, as a table.
vitals status gives a line per reading with a bar. vitals top lists the apps using the most memory, CPU, power, disk or network, right now or over a year. Ports, projects, containers, agents and AI limits each have a command, and every answer says when it was measured.
- Apps with their helpers counted in, as in the window
- Each reading in the app’s own color
- Which ports are open to the network, and which to this Mac only
--watchrefreshes the answer every two seconds
JSON for scripts, CSV for spreadsheets.
Add --json and any answer is JSON a script can read, the same answer the MCP server gives. --csv gives the main list for a spreadsheet. In a pipe nothing is clipped, so a script or an agent reads every word.
--jsonon every command--csvfor the main list- Plain text in a pipe, nothing clipped
- Exit code 1 when Vitals didn’t answer
It asks before it stops anything.
vitals can-quit says whether something is safe to quit, why, and what would stop with it. vitals quit and vitals stop show that verdict first and wait for your yes. What needs a person is refused without a terminal, even with --yes, so a script or an agent can't wave it through.
- Safe, ask first or don’t, with the reason
stop --idlestops every dev server nobody is using- Apps quit the way ⌘Q quits them, so they can ask to save
- Every quit is logged in Settings → Integrations
Install it, then every command
Settings → Integrations → Let AI Assistants Ask Vitals. The Terminal section there says where the command is.
$ vitals version The app and the command together, with the manual page and tab completion for zsh, bash and fish.
$ brew install --cask foredotstudio/tap/vitals | Command | What it answers |
|---|---|
| vitals status [<part>…] | CPU, memory, GPU, Neural Engine, disk, network, battery, power and heat, a line each; or only the parts you name |
| vitals top [<by>] [<period>] [N] | The apps using the most memory, CPU, power, disk or network, now or over an hour, a day, a week, a month, a quarter, half a year or a year |
| vitals app <name> | One app: its processes, ports, projects and containers, and what it used over a period |
| vitals find <name|pid|:port> | A process by name, PID or port |
| vitals ports [<port>…] | What is listening on which port, with its process, app and project, and whether it is open to this Mac or the network |
| vitals projects [<name>] | Project folders with something running, their ports, memory and CPU, and dev servers nobody is using |
| vitals containers [<name>] | Running containers in Docker, OrbStack, Podman or Colima, with their memory, CPU, network and ports |
| vitals agents [<name>] | Coding agents running right now: each session’s project, whether it is working or waiting for you, and what it started |
| vitals limits [<tool>] | What is left of each AI plan, when each limit resets, and whether it lasts at the rate you are going |
| vitals awake | What is keeping the Mac awake |
| vitals battery | The battery, and the apps drawing the most power |
| vitals history [<reading>…] [<period>] | How hard the Mac was pushed over a period, and when |
| vitals whats-wrong | What Vitals has noticed: apps holding the CPU or growing in memory, memory pressure, heat, and dev servers left behind |
| vitals can-quit [<app>] | Whether something is safe to quit, with the reason and what would stop with it. By name, --pid, --port or --project |
| vitals quit <app> | Quits an app after its verdict and your yes. --force ends it at once |
| vitals stop [<name>] | Stops one of your processes the same way, by name, --pid or --port; --idle stops every idle dev server |
| vitals completions <shell> | Tab completion for zsh, bash or fish |
| vitals mcp | Speaks MCP on standard input and output, for an AI assistant |
| vitals help | Every command and option |
| Option | What it does |
|---|---|
| --json | The answer as JSON, for a script |
| --csv | The main list as CSV, for a spreadsheet |
| --watch | Refreshes every two seconds until Control-C; --every N for another pace |
| --no-color | Plain text; NO_COLOR in the environment does the same |
Command line, before and after
macOS gives the terminal top and ps. Both list processes, about a thousand of them, with no idea which app or project each belongs to, and nothing about yesterday. Finding what holds port 3000 means lsof, a PID, and another command to find out what that PID is.
Coding agents work in the terminal too. When one wants to know what is slowing the Mac down or what is on a port, it runs the same commands and guesses from the list.
vitals asks the running Vitals app instead. You get apps with their helpers counted in, projects with their ports, agents with what they started, AI plans with what is left, and up to a year of history, as a table you can read or JSON a script can parse. The command measures nothing itself, so asking costs your Mac almost nothing.
Where it is in Vitals
The tab, the menu bar item and the setting, in the order you would reach for them.
- 01
Install it
Turn on Let AI Assistants Ask Vitals in Settings → Integrations, and Vitals links the command onto your PATH. If the folder needs your password, an Install button asks once. With Homebrew,
brew install --cask foredotstudio/tap/vitalsinstalls the app and the command together. - 02
Ask
vitals statusfor the whole Mac,vitals top cpu dayfor what used the most CPU today,vitals portsfor what is listening,vitals agentsfor your coding agents,vitals limitsfor your AI plans.vitals helplists every command, andman vitalsexplains each one. - 03
Script it
Add
--jsonto any command and pipe it tojq, or--csvfor a spreadsheet.--watchrefreshes the answer every two seconds until you press Control-C. - 04
Stop what you don’t need
vitals can-quit --port 3000says what holds the port and whether it is safe to stop.vitals stop --port 3000stops it after your yes, andvitals stop --idlestops every dev server nobody is using.
Command line: Activity Monitor and Vitals
The whole comparison is row by row. These are the rows about command line.
Activity Monitor 
Vitals top and ps, a process per rowvitals, an app per row, helpers counted inlsof, then look up the PIDvitals ports, with the project and who can reach itvitals agents and vitals limitsvitals history and vitals top, for up to a yearkill, no questions askedThe words behind it
What the numbers mean, from the Activity Monitor glossary.
- Listening port
A listening port is a network port where a process is waiting for incoming connections, such as a web server on port 3000.
- PID
A PID, or process ID, is a number macOS assigns to each running process to identify it.
- Helper processes
Helper processes are separate processes an app starts to do part of its work, such as rendering web pages, running extensions, or handling graphics.
- Force Quit
Force Quit ends an app or process immediately, without letting it save or clean up.
Questions
The ones people ask about command line before they buy.
Does Vitals have to be running?
Yes. The command asks the running app, which already keeps the readings and the history, so asking costs your Mac almost nothing. If Vitals isn't running, or Let AI Assistants Ask Vitals is off, the command says so and what to do.
How do I install it with Homebrew?
Run brew install --cask foredotstudio/tap/vitals. It installs the app and links the vitals command, its manual page and tab completion for zsh, bash and fish. Vitals updates itself, so brew upgrade leaves it alone.
I already have Vitals. How do I get the command?
Turn on Let AI Assistants Ask Vitals in Settings → Integrations. Vitals links vitals onto your PATH, in /opt/homebrew/bin or /usr/local/bin, and the Terminal section there says where. If the folder needs your password, an Install button asks for it once.
Can an AI agent use it?
Yes. An agent with a shell can run vitals and read the answer, and in a pipe nothing is cut short. It cannot stop anything that needs a person: without a terminal to ask on, those are refused, even with --yes.
How is it different from the MCP server?
It is the same connection to the app, with the same answers. The command adds quit and stop, which ask you on the terminal. An assistant speaking MCP asks through Vitals' own window instead, and vitals mcp is that server.
Does it work with the free trial?
Yes. Everything in Vitals works during the trial, the command included.
Which shells get tab completion?
zsh, bash and fish, with app names completed from what is running. Vitals installs zsh's and fish's with the command. For bash, add eval "$(vitals completions bash)" to your .bashrc; Homebrew installs all three.
Read on
Guides that use this, and how Vitals compares with the apps people buy for it.
More of Vitals
All featuresMenu bar monitor
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
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
An app keeping the CPU busy, growing in memory, or hammering the disk or network gets named before the fans tell you.
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