DevWatch

DevWatch transforms GNOME from a generic desktop into a developer-aware operating layer that understands your projects, tracks their runtime behavior, and eliminates common workflow friction — directly from the panel.

Why DevWatch?

• Linux developers think in terms of projects, services, ports, and builds — not raw PIDs and CPU graphs. Yet every existing tool (htop, lsof, GNOME System Monitor) is process-oriented, not project-oriented. DevWatch fills that gap by mapping running system processes back to your development projects, surfacing exactly the runtime intelligence you actually need without ever leaving the desktop.

How It Works

DevWatch runs in the background and:

1. Detects your projects — reads the focused window's working directory and walks up to the nearest .git root

2. Scans processes — reads /proc every 10 seconds and groups processes by project

3. Monitors ports — parses ss -tulnp output and maps each port back to its owning project

4. Tracks builds — detects 35+ build tools (npm, cargo, make, go, etc.) and records duration, peak CPU, and peak RAM

5. Auto-saves your workspace — every refresh, DevWatch silently saves a "Last Workspace" snapshot so you can resume after a reboot

Everything runs locally with zero network access. No cloud, no telemetry, no elevated privilege