I Got Tired of PM2. So I Built a Process Manager in Go — Single Binary, Any Language

Thomas Webb — Sun, 29 Mar 2026 08:44:41 +0000

If you've ever set up a server running a mix of Node.js, Python, and Go services, you know the pain. PM2 is great — until you realise it requires Node.js on every machine just to manage processes that have nothing to do with Node.
That was my breaking point.

The Problem

I had a Linux server running a Python worker, and a couple of Node.js services. PM2 worked fine for the Node stuff, but managing everything through it meant dragging in a Node runtime as a hard dependency just to supervise processes that didn't need it at all.
I looked at alternatives. Supervisord is Python-dependent. systemd works but it's not exactly developer-friendly for per-project process management. Everything else was either too basic or too complex.
So I built APM.

What APM Is

APM is a production-grade process manager for Linux, written in Go and distributed as a 2.5MB static binary. No runtime. No dependencies. No config files required to get started.
Drop it on any Linux box and you're running:

curl -sL https://processmanager.dev/install.sh | bash

That's it.

What Makes It Different

Language-agnostic by design. Node.js, Python, Go, Rust, Ruby, PHP — if it runs on Linux, APM can supervise it. One tool for your entire stack.
Built-in reverse proxy. For most setups you can skip Nginx entirely. APM handles routing directly, keeping your infrastructure simpler.
Vanguard Firewall with token bucket rate limiting. Built-in rate limiting per route without bolting on a separate tool.
mTLS support. Mutual TLS for secure service-to-service communication, configured directly in APM.
Live web GUI + CLI monitor. Real-time process stats, logs, CPU and memory usage — accessible from a browser or your terminal, whichever you prefer.
Rolling restarts with zero downtime. APM migrates active sessions during restarts, so deployments don't drop connections.
Broad distro compatibility. Tested on Arch, Ubuntu, Debian, Alpine, Fedora, and Raspberry Pi.

Who It's For

APM is built for developers and DevOps teams who:

Run mixed-language stacks on Linux
Want fewer moving parts in their infrastructure
Are tired of maintaining Nginx configs just for basic reverse proxying
Need something that works the same across every distro without fiddling with dependencies

What It Looks Like

The web GUI gives you a live view of all running processes, with per-process CPU and memory graphs, log streaming, and controls to start, stop, and restart. The CLI monitor mirrors this in your terminal for SSH sessions.

Where to Get It

Website + docs: processmanager.dev
Manual: processmanager.dev/manual.html

APM is at v1.3.0 and production-ready. I'm actively developing it and genuinely interested in feedback — especially from anyone running it on unusual distros or mixed-language setups.
What's your current setup for managing Linux processes? I'd love to know what pain points you're hitting that APM might help with.