Meet alter

Overview

alter is a single-binary process manager for Windows, Linux, and macOS. It ships with a full-featured web UI, a built-in terminal, Telegram bot integration, AI assistant, tunnel support, and more — all without requiring Node.js, Python, or any additional runtime.

alter web dashboard — process list view

Installation

Windows

Download the alter-windows-x86_64.exe installer from the latest release. Run the installer — it will place the alter.exe binary and register it on your PATH.

Linux / macOS

Download the appropriate binary for your platform from GitHub Releases and make it executable:

# Linux x86_64
curl -Lo alter https://github.com/thechandanbhagat/alter-pm/releases/latest/download/alter-linux-x86_64
chmod +x alter
sudo mv alter /usr/local/bin/

# macOS arm64
curl -Lo alter https://github.com/thechandanbhagat/alter-pm/releases/latest/download/alter-macos-arm64
chmod +x alter
sudo mv alter /usr/local/bin/

Build from Source

Requires Rust 1.77+.

git clone https://github.com/thechandanbhagat/alter-pm
cd alter-pm
cargo build --release
# Binary at: target/release/alter  (Linux/macOS)
#             target/release/alter.exe  (Windows)

First Launch

1. Start the daemon

   Run alter daemon start to launch the background daemon. It listens on 127.0.0.1:2999 by default.

   $ alter daemon start

   alter daemon started on http://127.0.0.1:2999
2. Open the web dashboard

   Navigate to http://127.0.0.1:2999 in your browser. On first visit you will be asked to set a password.

3. Set your password

   Choose a strong password for the dashboard. This password is stored as an argon2id hash — it is never stored in plain text.

4. You're in!

   The process list is empty on first run. Click Start new process to add your first process.

Daemon CLI reference

alter daemon start        # Start in background
alter daemon stop         # Stop gracefully
alter daemon status       # Check running status
alter daemon start --port 4000  # Use custom port

Interface Tour

Navigation Bar (top)

The top bar contains the main navigation links. Clicking a section header (e.g. Processes ▼) opens a dropdown with grouped views.

Filter Bar (sidebar)

The sidebar shows active filters and namespace groups. Click a namespace to show only processes in that group. Click ACTIVE to show all running processes regardless of namespace.

Status Bar (bottom)

The bottom status bar always shows:

• Server indicator — current daemon (Local or remote) and connection status
• GitHub star widget — quick link to star the project
• Discord link — community Discord server
• Notifications bell — process events (crash, restart, start, stop)
• Terminal toggle — show/hide the bottom terminal panel
• AI Assistant — open the AI chat panel
• System stats — host CPU and memory usage

Sidebar controls (footer)

At the bottom-left of the sidebar:

• Server switcher — switch between local and remote alter daemons
• Settings — open the settings page
• Save state — persist all current processes to disk so they restart after a daemon reboot
• Lock screen — immediately lock the dashboard
• Shutdown daemon — gracefully shut down the daemon

Process Management

Starting a New Process

1. Click Start new process in the top navigation bar.
2. Fill in the details:

   • Name — identifier for this process (e.g. web-server)
   • Command — the executable to run (e.g. node, python)
   • Arguments — command-line arguments after -- (e.g. server.js)
   • Working directory — directory from which the process runs
   • Namespace — optional group label (e.g. servers, workers)
   • Environment variables — KEY=VALUE pairs, one per line
   • Auto-restart — restart automatically on crash or exit
3. Click Start process. The process appears in the list immediately.

Process Status Indicators

Process Actions

Each process row has action buttons on the right:

• Start / Stop — toggle the process on or off
• Restart — stop and immediately restart the process
• Logs — open the log viewer for this process (also accessible via process name click)
• Edit — modify command, args, env vars, and restart policy
• Delete — remove the process permanently (with optional confirmation dialog)

Enable / Disable Processes

Disabling a process excludes it from the auto-start list. This is useful for seasonal scripts or processes you want to keep configured but not running. Disabled processes:

• Have a subtle gray tint on their row
• Show a disabled (grayed) Start button
• Will not be restarted by the auto-restart policy
• Are skipped when loading saved state on daemon startup

To enable/disable: click the process name to open the Process Detail page, then toggle the Enabled switch.

Namespaces

Namespaces are labels that group related processes in the sidebar. For example:

web-server   → namespace: "servers"
api-worker   → namespace: "workers"
bg-sync      → namespace: "workers"

Click a namespace in the sidebar to filter the list to that group only. Processes without a namespace appear under default.

Process Detail Page

Click a process name to open its detail page. Here you can:

• View live log output (stdout + stderr)
• See CPU and memory charts over time
• Inspect the full process configuration
• Toggle enable/disable
• Trigger manual restart

Log Viewer

The log viewer streams new lines in real time via Server-Sent Events (SSE). Controls:

• Search — filter log lines by keyword or regex
• Tail lines — how many recent lines to load on open (configurable in Settings → General)
• Download — save the full log file to disk
• Clear — delete the current log file for this process
• Auto-scroll — toggle whether the view scrolls to the latest line

View Modes

Toggle between Table view (compact) and Card view (expanded with graphs) using the view mode button in the top-right of the process list. Your preference is persisted in the daemon settings.

Terminal

alter includes a full xterm.js terminal at the bottom of the screen. Open it with the Terminal button in the status bar or press Ctrl+T.

Tabs

Each terminal tab is an independent shell session. Tabs are labeled by their shell name and working directory. Switch tabs by clicking them or use keyboard shortcuts.

Split Pane

Press Ctrl+Shift+T to split the current tab into two side-by-side panes. Each pane is an independent shell.

Command History

Command history is automatically persisted to the daemon data directory (%APPDATA%\alter-pm2\terminal-history.json on Windows). Up to 150 commands per session are stored, and history is restored when you reopen the same terminal tab.

• Press ↑ / ↓ to navigate history
• Click the Command history button in the terminal toolbar to browse history in a popup

Resize

Drag the terminal panel's top edge to resize it vertically. Minimize and maximize buttons are also available in the terminal toolbar.

Log Library

The Log Library (Log Library in the navigation) provides a unified view of all process logs in one searchable interface.

Features

• Process selector — choose which process (or all) to view
• Search — filter lines by text or regular expression across all logs
• Stream / Tail toggle — switch between live streaming and static tail view
• Log level coloring — ERROR, WARN, INFO lines are color-coded
• Timestamps — each line shows its exact timestamp
• Download — export filtered or full logs as a text file

Log Volume

Log Volume shows a bar chart of log output volume per hour. Useful for spotting noisy processes or identifying when a crash wave occurred. Filter by process and time range.

Log Storage

Logs are stored at:

• Windows: %APPDATA%\alter-pm2\logs\<process-name>\out.log and err.log
• Linux/macOS: ~/.alter-pm2/logs/<process-name>/out.log

Log Rotation (automatic)

Log rotation runs in the background — no configuration needed:

Cron Jobs

Create scheduled tasks that run on a cron schedule. Navigate to Cron Jobs in the top bar, then click New cron job.

Creating a Cron Job

Common Cron Expressions

Cron Job List

The cron jobs list shows each job with:

• Status (running, idle, failed)
• Next scheduled run time
• Last run time and exit code
• Actions: Run now, Edit, Delete

Ecosystem Files

Ecosystem files let you define multiple processes (and their configurations) in a single JSON or YAML file — similar to PM2's ecosystem files.

Format

{
  "apps": [
    {
      "name": "web-server",
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["server.js"],
      "cwd": "/opt/app",
      "namespace": "production",
      "instances": 1,
      "env": { "PORT": "3000", "NODE_ENV": "production" },
      "autorestart": true
    },
    {
      "name": "worker",
      "command": "python",
      "args": ["worker.py"],
      "cwd": "/opt/app",
      "instances": 4,
      "autorestart": true
    }
  ]
}

Multi-Instance Support

Set "instances": N (where N > 1) to spawn multiple copies of a process. Instances are named worker-0, worker-1, etc.

Loading an Ecosystem File

# Via CLI
alter ecosystem start /path/to/ecosystem.json

# Via API (POST /api/v1/ecosystem/start)
curl -X POST http://127.0.0.1:2999/api/v1/ecosystem/start \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <token>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d @ecosystem.json

Rolling Restart

For multi-instance process groups, trigger a rolling restart (one instance at a time with a brief delay) to achieve zero-downtime deploys:

# Via API (POST /api/v1/processes/group/{name}/rolling-restart)
curl -X POST http://127.0.0.1:2999/api/v1/processes/group/worker/rolling-restart \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <token>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"config": {...}}'

Tunnels

Expose local ports to the public internet using Cloudflare Tunnel, ngrok, or a custom provider. Navigate to TOOLS → Tunnels.

Creating a Tunnel

1. Click New tunnel on the Tunnels page.
2. Enter the local port you want to expose (e.g. 3000).
3. Choose a provider: Cloudflare, ngrok, or Custom.
4. Click Start. alter launches the tunnel process and captures the public URL from its output.

Providers

Configure provider credentials in Settings → Tunnels.

Port Finder Integration

The Port Finder page lists all active TCP listeners on the host. LISTENING ports show a Tunnel button — click it to instantly create a tunnel for that port without navigating away.

Port Finder

Navigate to TOOLS → Port Finder to see all active TCP listeners on the host machine.

What it shows

• Port — TCP port number
• Protocol — TCP/UDP
• State — LISTENING, ESTABLISHED, TIME_WAIT, etc.
• Local address — bound interface (127.0.0.1, 0.0.0.0, etc.)
• Remote address — for established connections
• PID & process name — which process owns the socket
• Protocol filter — filter by TCP, UDP, or all

Tunnel button

Every row with a LISTENING port shows a Tunnel action button. Clicking it pre-fills the Tunnels page with that port, so you can expose it publicly in one click without leaving the Port Finder.

Refresh

Click Refresh to rescan — the list updates in real time. Use the search bar to filter by port number, process name, or address.

Remote Servers

Connect to alter daemons running on remote machines from one dashboard. Click the server switcher in the sidebar footer to manage connections.

Adding a Remote Server

Click the server name in the sidebar footer, then Add server. Two connection types are available:

Direct connection fields

• Host — IP or hostname of the remote machine
• Port — daemon port (default: 2999)

SSH tunnel fields

• SSH host — remote machine hostname/IP
• SSH port — SSH server port (default: 22)
• SSH user — username for SSH login
• SSH key path — path to your private key (optional; uses SSH agent if omitted)
• Local forward port — which local port to bind for the tunnel
• Remote daemon port — daemon port on the remote machine (default: 2999)

After adding, click the server name to switch to it. The tunnel command is shown so you can run it manually if needed.

AI Assistant

The AI Assistant panel (accessible from the status bar) lets you chat about your processes, logs, and configuration using a local or cloud-hosted LLM.

Supported Providers

Setup (Ollama example)

1. Install Ollama and pull a model: ollama pull llama3.2
2. In alter, go to Settings → AI
3. Select provider: Ollama (local)
4. Set base URL: http://localhost:11434 (default)
5. Click Refresh next to the model selector to load available models
6. Enable the AI assistant toggle and save

What to Ask

• "Why did the api-worker process crash?"
• "Show me the last 20 error lines from web-server"
• "How do I configure auto-restart for a process?"
• "What processes are currently running?"

Settings → General

Polling & Refresh

• Auto-refresh — toggle automatic polling on/off
• Process refresh interval — how often the process list updates (1s–60s)
• Health check interval — how often the daemon connection status is checked

Behaviour

• Confirm before delete — show a confirmation dialog before deleting a process
• Confirm before shutdown — show a confirmation dialog before shutting down the daemon

Log Viewer

• Default tail lines — how many lines to load when opening a process log (50–5000)

Process Defaults

• Default namespace — pre-filled namespace when creating new processes

Storage

• Data directory — root path where alter stores state, PID file, and daemon logs (read-only display)
• Log directory — where process stdout/stderr files are written; override with ALTER_LOG_DIR env var

Daemon

• Restart daemon — restarts the HTTP server only; running processes are unaffected

Updates

Click Check for updates to query GitHub Releases for a newer version. If an update is available, click Update Now (binary self-update) or Download & Install (installer). The daemon restarts automatically after the update.

Settings → UI

Customize the visual appearance of the dashboard.

• Theme — Dark, Light, or System (follows OS setting)
• Accent color — choose a primary color for buttons, active states, and highlights
• Font size — base font size for the dashboard
• Process view mode — default view (Table or Card) for the process list
• Compact mode — reduce padding and row heights for higher density
• Show PID column — show/hide the PID column in table view

Settings → Security

Password

Change your dashboard login password. The new password must be at least 8 characters. A strength meter indicates password quality.

PIN (Quick-unlock)

Set a 4 or 6 digit numeric PIN for the lock screen. The PIN is faster to type than a full password and is stored as an argon2id hash. To remove the PIN, click Remove after setting one.

Session Lock

Configure automatic inactivity lock:

• Disabled — never auto-lock
• 5 minutes through 1 hour — lock after the chosen period of inactivity

Inactivity is detected via mouse movement, keyboard input, clicks, and scroll events. Locking uses the PIN if configured, otherwise the full password.

You can also lock immediately at any time using the Lock screen button in the sidebar footer.

Settings → AI

Enable AI Assistant

Toggle the AI panel visibility. When disabled, the AI button in the status bar is hidden.

Provider Configuration

Ollama (local)

• Set Ollama base URL (default: http://localhost:11434)
• Click Refresh to load the list of locally pulled models
• Select the desired model (e.g. llama3.2, codellama)

GitHub Copilot

• Requires an active GitHub Copilot subscription
• Click Sign in with GitHub — alter uses the OAuth Device Flow
• A code appears — visit github.com/login/device and enter it
• After authorization, alter is linked to your account. Model list loads automatically.

Claude (Anthropic)

• Get an API key from console.anthropic.com
• Paste it into the Anthropic API key field and save
• After saving, the key is masked — only a hint (e.g. sk-ant-…XYZ) is shown

OpenAI / OpenAI-compatible

• Enter your OpenAI API key (sk-…)
• Optionally override the API base URL for Azure OpenAI, Groq, LM Studio, or other compatible endpoints

Model Selector

After configuring a provider, click Refresh (↺) next to the model dropdown to fetch available models. The selector is populated with models returned by the provider's API.

Settings → Telegram

Configure a Telegram bot to control your processes and receive notifications from anywhere.

Setup Guide

1. Message @BotFather on Telegram, run /newbot, and copy the bot token.
2. Paste the token into the Bot Token field and click Validate. alter will confirm the bot identity.
3. Message your bot (to create the chat). Then message @userinfobot to get your numeric Chat ID.
4. Add your Chat ID (one per line) to Allowed Chat IDs. alter silently ignores messages from any other ID.
5. Configure notification preferences (crash, start, stop, restart).
6. Enable the bot and click Save.
7. Click Send Test Message to confirm everything works.

Bot Commands

Notification Events

Settings → Log Alerts

Configure pattern-based log monitoring. When a process log line matches a defined pattern, alter can send an alert via Telegram (if configured) or display a desktop notification.

• Add alert patterns as regular expressions (e.g. ERROR|CRITICAL|OOM)
• Choose the alert channel: in-app notification, Telegram, or both
• Set a cooldown period to avoid alert storms
• Enable/disable per-pattern without deleting it

Settings → Tunnels

Configure your tunnel provider credentials and default settings.

• Provider — choose Cloudflare, ngrok, or Custom as the default
• Cloudflare token — your cloudflared auth token
• ngrok auth token — your ngrok authentication token
• Custom binary — path to a custom tunnel binary
• Custom args — arguments template (use {port} as a placeholder for the local port)

Settings → Terminal

Customize the built-in terminal panel.

• Shell — default shell to launch (bash, zsh, powershell, cmd)
• Font size — terminal font size in pixels
• Font family — monospace font for terminal text
• Scrollback lines — number of lines kept in the terminal buffer
• Default height — initial terminal panel height in pixels
• Cursor style — block, underline, or bar cursor
• Cursor blink — toggle cursor blink animation

Settings → System

Start on Login

Automatically start the alter daemon when you log in to the operating system.

• Windows — registers a SCHTASKS entry that runs at logon with highest privilege
• Linux — creates a systemd user unit (~/.config/systemd/user/alter-daemon.service) and enables it
• macOS — installs a launchd plist in ~/Library/LaunchAgents/

Click Enable to register, Disable to remove the registration. The current status (enabled/disabled) and method are shown.

Log Rotation

Informational summary of the automatic log rotation settings (not configurable from the UI):

Data Directory

All alter data is stored in a single directory:

• Windows: %APPDATA%\alter-pm2\
• Linux/macOS: ~/.alter-pm2/

This directory contains: state.json, auth.json, settings.json, ui-settings.json, telegram.json, tunnel.json, remote-servers.json, terminal-history.json, and the logs/ subdirectory.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Telegram Commands Reference

Troubleshooting

Dashboard won't load

• Check that the daemon is running: alter daemon status
• Verify the port is correct (default: 2999): curl http://127.0.0.1:2999/api/v1/health
• Check firewall rules if accessing from a remote browser

Can't build/update the daemon (Windows)

If cargo build fails with a "locked file" error, the daemon is running and has locked alter.exe. Stop it first:

curl -X POST http://127.0.0.1:2999/api/v1/system/shutdown \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <master-token>"

The master token is stored in %APPDATA%\alter-pm2\auth.json.

Process keeps crashing

• Open the process log to see the error message
• Check that the working directory exists and the command path is correct
• Verify that required environment variables are set in the process config
• Check system resources (disk full, out of memory)

Telegram bot not responding

• Confirm the bot token is valid (click Validate in Settings → Telegram)
• Ensure your Chat ID is listed in Allowed Chat IDs
• The bot only polls when the daemon is running — check daemon status
• Use Send Test Message to verify end-to-end delivery

Settings not saving

Settings are saved to the daemon's API at /api/v1/system/ui-settings. Confirm:

• The daemon is running and reachable
• Your session token is valid (try logging out and back in)
• The data directory is writable

Auto-restart not working

• Confirm Auto-restart is enabled in the process config (edit the process)
• Check that the process is not disabled (disabled processes skip auto-restart)
• Verify the process is actually crashing (exit code ≠ 0) vs. exiting cleanly

OS startup not registering (Windows)

Run as administrator if SCHTASKS fails. Verify with:

schtasks /query /tn alter-daemon

Logs directory is full

Log rotation runs automatically, but if you're in a high-throughput scenario:

• Clear logs for a specific process from its detail page
• Override the log directory to a volume with more space using the ALTER_LOG_DIR env var