🚀 startall

> A powerful, interactive terminal UI for managing multiple npm scripts with tmux-style panes, filtering, and real-time control

!startall screenshot

The Problem

Running multiple npm scripts during development is tedious:

- Repetitive: Manually typing npm run frontend, npm run backend, etc. every time
- Cluttered terminal: Multiple terminal tabs/windows get messy fast
- No visibility: Hard to tell if one process crashed while others are running
- No control: Can't easily restart a single service without restarting everything
- No filtering: Output from 4+ processes becomes unreadable noise

Traditional solutions fall short:
- npm-run-all/concurrently: No interactivity, just dumps output
- PM2: Overkill for dev workflows, designed for production
- Overmind: Amazing UX but requires tmux (not Windows-friendly)
- Manual shell scripts: No real-time status or control

The Solution

startall is a sophisticated TUI that combines the power of tmux with the simplicity of npm scripts, giving you complete control over your development processes with split panes, filtering, and interactive controls.

Features

$3

- Auto-discovery: Automatically reads all scripts from package.json
- Smart defaults: Remembers your last selection in startall.json
- 10-second countdown: Review selections before starting
- Parallel execution: Run multiple npm scripts simultaneously
- Live status monitoring: Real-time status indicators (● running, ✖ crashed, ○ stopped)
- Interactive controls: Start, stop, and restart individual processes on the fly
- Cross-platform: Works identically on Windows, Linux, and macOS

$3

- Multi-pane layout: tmux-inspired split panes (vertical & horizontal)
- Flexible filtering:
- Text search across all output (/)
- Filter by ANSI color (red/yellow/green/blue/cyan/magenta) (c)
- Per-process visibility toggles (Space or 1-9)
- Per-pane filters (different views in each pane)
- Custom pane naming: Label panes for easier identification (n)
- Column view: Instant one-pane-per-script layout with = key (toggle back to restore your layout)
- Persistent layouts: Your pane configuration is saved between sessions
- Process-specific views: Show/hide specific processes in each pane
- Colored output: Each process gets unique color-coded output
- Copy mode: Select and copy output lines to clipboard (y)
- Pause/resume: Freeze output to review logs (p)
- Scrollable history: 1000-line buffer with mouse wheel support
- Enhanced navigation: Home/End/PageUp/PageDown keys

$3

- Toggleable line numbers: Show/hide line numbers (#)
- Timestamps: Show/hide timestamps for each log line (t)
- Quick process toggle: Use number keys 1-9 for instant visibility control

$3

- Quick Commands: Run any script on-demand without adding it to the persistent processes
- Press e to open command picker and select any script
- Or assign keyboard shortcuts for instant access (press assigned key to run)
- Perfect for build scripts, tests, or any short-running command
- Output shown in popup overlay with Esc to close
- Configure shortcuts in settings (o → Quick Commands section)
- Interactive input mode: Send commands to running processes via stdin (i)
- Perfect for dev servers that accept commands (Vite, Rust watch, etc.)
- Settings panel: Configure ignore/include patterns, shortcuts, and more (o)
- Wildcard support (*) for pattern matching
- Per-script visibility toggles
- Git integration: Commit and push directly from the TUI (g)
- Auto-detects git repositories
- Shows branch name in the footer
- View staged, modified, and untracked files
- Stage all changes, write a commit message, and push - all without leaving the TUI
- Keyboard & mouse support: Full keyboard navigation + mouse clicking/scrolling
- VSCode integration: Optimized for VSCode integrated terminal

Installation

``bash
npm install -g startall
`

Usage

In any project with a package.json:

`bash
startall # uses startall.json if present
startall myconfig.json # uses custom config file
`

That's it! The TUI will:

1. Show all available npm scripts
2. Pre-select your last choices
3. Give you 10 seconds to adjust
4. Start all selected scripts in parallel

$3

Selection Screen:
- ↑/↓ - Navigate scripts
- Space - Toggle selection
- Enter - Start immediately (skip countdown)
- o - Open settings
- Ctrl+C - Exit

Running Screen:

Process Control:
- 1-9 - Quick toggle process visibility in focused pane
- Space - Toggle visibility of selected process
- s - Stop/start selected process
- r - Restart selected process
- i - Send input to selected process (interactive mode)
- e - Execute any script (opens command picker)
- a-z - Run assigned quick command (if configured)

Pane Management:
- \ - Open command palette
- | - Split pane vertically (left/right)
- _ - Split pane horizontally (top/bottom)
- = - Toggle column view (one column per script, auto-generated)
- x - Close current pane (if >1 pane exists)
- Tab - Next pane
- Shift+Tab - Previous pane
- n - Name current pane

Copy Mode:
- y - Enter copy mode (select text to copy to clipboard)
- ↑/↓ or k/j - Move cursor
- Home/End or g/G - Jump to first/last line
- Page Up/Page Down - Scroll by page
- Space - Start/clear selection from cursor
- Enter or y - Copy selected lines (or current line) to clipboard
- Esc or q - Exit copy mode

Filtering & View:
- / - Enter text filter mode
- c - Cycle color filter (red/yellow/green/blue/cyan/magenta/none)
- f - Filter to selected process only
- Esc - Clear filters
- p - Pause/resume output scrolling
- # - Toggle line numbers
- t - Toggle timestamps

Navigation:
- ↑/↓ or k/j - Select process (vim-style)
- ←/→ or h/l - Select process (vim-style)
- Home - Scroll to top of pane
- End - Scroll to bottom of pane
- Page Up - Scroll up one page
- Page Down - Scroll down one page
- Mouse wheel - Scroll output

Other:
- g - Open git modal (commit & push, only in git repos)
- o - Open settings
- q - Quit (stops all processes)
- Ctrl+C - Force quit

Settings Screen:
- Tab/←/→ - Switch sections (Display/Ignore/Include/Quick Commands/Script List)
- ↑/↓ - Navigate items
- i - Add new ignore pattern
- n - Add new include pattern
- Space or Enter - Toggle option (Display) / Assign shortcut (Quick Commands) / Toggle ignore (Script List)
- d or Backspace - Delete pattern or shortcut
- Esc or q - Return to previous screen

Run Command Picker:
- ↑/↓ or k/j - Navigate scripts
- Enter - Run selected script
- Esc or q - Close picker

Quick Commands Overlay:
- Esc - Close overlay and stop command (if running)

Git Modal (press g from Running Screen, only in git repos):
- a - Stage all changes
- c - Start writing commit message
- p - Push to remote
- r - Refresh git status
- ↑/↓ - Navigate file list
- Esc or q - Close git modal
- When writing commit message:
- Enter - Stage all and commit
- Esc - Cancel and go back to status

Why Build This?

Existing tools either:
- Lack interactivity (concurrently, npm-run-all)
- Are production-focused (PM2, forever)
- Don't support Windows (Overmind, tmux-based tools)
- Are too heavyweight for simple dev workflows

Start is purpose-built for the development workflow: lightweight, cross-platform, and interactive.

Technical Details

- Built with OpenTUI for a modern terminal UI
- Uses standard Node.js child_process (no PTY required = Windows support)
- Parses package.json scripts automatically
- Saves configuration in startall.json:
`json
{
"defaultSelection": ["frontend", "backend"],
"include": ["dev:*"],
"ignore": ["*:test"],
"shortcuts": {
"b": "build",
"t": "test",
"l": "lint"
}
}
`
- defaultSelection: scripts to auto-select on startup
- include (optional): if defined, only scripts matching these patterns are shown
- ignore: scripts matching these patterns are hidden
- shortcuts: keyboard shortcuts for running commands on-demand
- All patterns support wildcards (*`)

Roadmap

- [ ] Interactive process control (start/stop/restart)
- [ ] Real-time status indicators
- [ ] Output filtering and search
- [ ] Tab view for individual process logs
- [ ] Resource monitoring
- [ ] Custom color schemes
- [ ] Configuration file support
- [ ] Watch mode (restart on file changes)

Contributing

PRs welcome! This is a tool built by developers, for developers.

License

MIT