Macdara Ó Murchú
GitHub

AppPluginExtension

PortPilot

I had a lot of projects running on my machine, in React, Python, Docker, Go and Rust, and they kept clashing over ports. I built PortPilot because I needed something to keep that in order.

  • Windows
  • Linux
  • macOS

macOS builds from source. It is supported but not officially tested.

Source on GitHub · Project site

Claude asks for the youtube profile, and PortPilot opens it already signed in. The demo uses a throwaway channel.

See what’s running from VS Code. Tiles at the top of the sidebar show a picture of each running app and your browser profiles. Stopped apps fold away. Sample apps.

Second start, one serverWhat the guard does, as described in the project README.
  1. Claude starts a dev serverport 3030 is already in use
  2. PortPilot guardsees the running server
  3. Claude reuses itno second server, no new port

#What it does

  • Four surfaces share one config file and one run record: a desktop app, a web portal, a VS Code extension and the Claude Code plugin.
  • The plugin gives Claude a status line, a guard that points a second start at the running server, a crash band, and 26 MCP tools such as find_run.
  • Local-first: no account, no telemetry, no cloud. Windows 10/11 and Linux.

#Install

Claude Code plugin
/plugin marketplace add m4cd4r4/PortPilot
/plugin install portpilot@portpilot

Type these inside Claude Code.

VS Code extension
code --install-extension macdara.portpilot

VS Code Marketplace · Open VSX (VSCodium, Cursor) · Windows installer, v4.0.4

#How it’s built

PortPilot's architecture. You use the VS Code extension and the desktop app or web agent. Claude Code, or another MCP client, uses the Claude Code plugin and the MCP server, and the plugin routes dev-server starts to the MCP server. All four read and write one shared config folder, behind a lock and atomic rename. The desktop app and the MCP server start and stop dev servers and browser profiles. The VS Code extension can also start apps in its own terminal and manage browser profiles.