process-monitor

name	process-monitor
description	Monitor system processes for resource usage using process-tree watch mode. Use when tracking CPU or memory usage over time, finding resource hogs, or watching a specific process. Triggers include "monitor processes", "watch cpu usage", "process monitor", "top processes", "resource usage", "ptree watch".

process-monitor

Guide to monitoring processes with process-tree's watch mode and resource filters.

Watching Resource Usage

# Continuously refresh full tree
ptree watch

# Watch only high-CPU processes
ptree watch --min-cpu 10

# Watch a specific application subtree
ptree watch --name node

# Watch with faster refresh
ptree watch --interval 1

Press q or Ctrl-C to stop watching.

Finding Resource Hogs

# Sort by CPU usage to see top consumers first
ptree --sort cpu

# Find processes using a lot of memory
ptree --sort mem

# Show only processes above CPU threshold
ptree --min-cpu 5

# Show only processes above memory threshold
ptree --min-mem 500

Reading the Output

Resource columns:

• CPU%: percentage of one CPU core (can exceed 100% on multi-core)
• MEM: resident set size in MB

In watch mode, CPU values are current snapshots. High CPU over multiple refreshes indicates sustained load.

The tree structure shows which parent started which process. A high-CPU child process is often spawned by a parent that started a task.

Common Monitoring Tasks

# What is using port 3000?
ptree --port 3000

# Which node processes are running?
ptree --name node

# How much CPU is postgres using?
ptree --name postgres

# Watch a server process and its workers
ptree watch --root 8421      # watch from specific PID down

# Find all processes for a user
ptree --user deploy

Killing Resource Hogs

# Kill a runaway process
ptree kill 8421

# Kill and all its children
ptree kill 8421 --subtree

# Force kill if SIGTERM not working
ptree kill 8421 --signal SIGKILL --yes

Compact Mode for Busy Systems

On systems with many processes, use --compact to collapse groups of identical-named worker processes into a single line with a count:

ptree --compact
ptree watch --compact

This shows node x12 instead of 12 individual node rows.