Product Development

Serverlife.

Serverlife sits in the tray and shows every server listening on localhost — port, folder and page title — with your own projects kept separate from the OS and installed apps. Right-click a folder to start serving it.

• Every port, PID, folder & page title
• Tells yours apart from the OS & installed apps
• Drop a folder on it to serve it
• Auto-restart if it dies
• Works offline

macOS 1.0.0 · Windows 1.0.0 — free & open source

Download for macOS ↓

1.7 MB disk image Apple Silicon, macOS 13+ Version 1.0.0

Needs an Apple Silicon Mac (M1 or newer) on macOS 13 Ventura or later — it isn't notarized by Apple, so the first launch needs one extra click (below)

1. Open the .dmg and drag Serverlife.app onto the Applications shortcut — or run it from wherever you put it, it doesn't need to live there. Eject the disk image when you're done.
2. macOS will refuse to open it the first time. The app isn't notarized — notarization needs a paid Apple Developer account, and this project is free. Open System Settings → Privacy & Security, scroll to the bottom, and click Open Anyway next to the Serverlife line, then confirm. (On macOS 14 and earlier you can instead right-click Serverlife.app, choose Open, then Open again.) Only needed once.
3. It lands in the menu bar (and the Dock). Click the gear button if you want to switch on the right-click menu — "Start server here" on any folder in Finder, from its Quick Actions.

SHA-256   eb2c5dd7031d80b19bad756d68e73941aca280384fdee9e806b0b8ed4ce9b2ad

Download for Windows ↓

2.8 MB installer Windows 10 & 11, 64-bit Version 1.0.0

Installs just for you — no admin. Needs the .NET 8 Desktop Runtime, which most machines already have — the installer fetches it for you if yours doesn't. Rather not run an installer? Portable ZIP (1.2 MB) — extract and run, but you install the runtime yourself.

1. Windows will say the publisher is unknown. The app isn't code-signed — a certificate costs more per year than this project does. Choose More info → Run anyway.
2. Pick your options. The installer offers a desktop shortcut and the "Start server here" right-click menu — both off by default, both changeable later from the app's gear icon.
3. It lands in the notification area. Left-click the tray icon to bring the panel back; Quit is on its right-click menu.

SHA-256   d5610e5b44f0c099b23a468c366c742f1ad30dc052d3c444f6a6edf4d80e43c6

Source on GitHub All releases MIT licence Third-party notices

Check the row before you click Stop. Stopping a server takes down everything it started, and the Mine/System split and folder detection are best-effort guesses from where a process runs — not guarantees. Right-click any row to correct one by hand: move it out of Mine, or mark it as yours, and Serverlife remembers.

Nothing Serverlife looks at ever leaves your computer. There is no account, no upload, no telemetry — the only network activity is the app's own request to localhost to read a served page's title. Discovery is local process and port inspection, start/stop is a normal process tree, and the folder read is a best-effort look at the target process's own memory — it degrades to "unknown folder" rather than breaking anything.

The case study.

The problem

Local dev servers pile up on forgotten ports, especially when AI coding agents start them, and finding or restarting the right one wastes time.

Who it is for

Developers and designers who run local projects, with or without AI coding tools.

How it was built

Two native tray apps: .NET on Windows, Swift on macOS. Free and open source under the MIT licence. Designed and coded with AI coding agents.

Results

Version 1.0.0 released for Windows and macOS.