overseer

A zero-dependency Go clone of foreman — a Procfile-based process manager. Overseer reads a Procfile, spawns each process, streams prefixed and colored output, and handles graceful shutdown on signals.

Features

• Zero external dependencies — pure Go standard library
• Colored, timestamped output — one color per process type, padded labels
• Formation support — run multiple instances of any process type
• Port assignment — auto-assigns PORT per instance (base + processIndex*100 + instanceIndex)
• Dual-stack networking — reports IPv4 and IPv6 bind addresses at startup
• .env file loading — single-quoted, double-quoted, and unquoted values
• Graceful shutdown — SIGTERM to all children, SIGKILL after configurable timeout
• Signal forwarding — SIGUSR1/SIGUSR2 forwarded to all children

Installation

Requires Go 1.26+ (managed automatically via mise if you use it).

go install github.com/haydenk/overseer@latest

Or build from source:

git clone https://github.com/haydenk/overseer.git
cd overseer
mise run build        # → bin/overseer
# or
go build -o bin/overseer .

Usage

overseer check

Validate a Procfile and list detected process types.

overseer check [-f Procfile]

valid procfile detected (web, worker)

overseer start

Start all processes (or a single named process) defined in the Procfile.

overseer start [PROCESS] [flags]

  -f string         Procfile path (default "Procfile")
  -e string         .env file path (default ".env")
  -m string         formation, e.g. all=1,web=2,worker=3
  -p string         base port — overrides $PORT (default 5000)
  -t int            graceful shutdown timeout in seconds (default 5)
  -c                enable colored output (default true)
  -no-timestamp     disable timestamps

Examples:

# Start all processes
overseer start

# Start only the web process
overseer start web

# Run two web instances and one worker
overseer start -m web=2,worker=1

# Use a custom Procfile and env file
overseer start -f Procfile.staging -e .env.staging

# Disable color and timestamps (useful for log aggregators)
overseer start -c=false -no-timestamp

overseer run

Run a single command (or a named Procfile entry) with the environment loaded from the .env file.

overseer run [flags] COMMAND

  -f string   Procfile path (default "Procfile")
  -e string   .env file path (default ".env")

Examples:

# Inspect the environment overseer would inject
overseer run env

# Run a Procfile entry by name
overseer run -e .env.test worker

# Run an arbitrary command with the loaded env
overseer run -e .env "bundle exec rake db:migrate"

Procfile format

web:    python3 -m http.server $PORT
worker: sleep 100
clock:  python3 clock.py

• One process per line: name: command
• $PORT is injected automatically per instance
• Lines starting with # are ignored

.env format

DATABASE_URL=postgres://localhost/myapp
SECRET_KEY='no escape processing here'
GREETING="Hello\nWorld"

• Unquoted — value used as-is
• Single-quoted — no escape processing
• Double-quoted — \n → newline, \\ → \

Formation & port assignment

The -m flag controls how many instances of each process type are spawned:

Flag	Effect
(none)	one instance of every process (all=1)
-m all=2	two instances of every process
-m web=2,worker=0	two web instances, no workers
overseer start web	shorthand for -m web=1

Ports are assigned as:

PORT = basePort + (processTypeIndex × 100) + instanceIndex

For example, with base port 5000 and web=2,worker=2:

Instance	PORT
web.1	5000
web.2	5001
worker.1	5100
worker.2	5101

Override the base with -p PORT or the $PORT environment variable.

Signal handling

Signal	Behavior
SIGINT, SIGTERM, SIGHUP	Graceful shutdown: SIGTERM all children, then SIGKILL after timeout
SIGUSR1, SIGUSR2	Forwarded directly to all child processes

Development

This project uses mise to manage the Go toolchain and common tasks.

# First-time setup
mise run setup

# Build
mise run build

# Run the dev server (uses Procfile.dev if present, falls back to Procfile)
mise run dev

# Test
mise run test

# Format
mise run fmt

# Lint (go vet + staticcheck)
mise run lint

# Full quality gate (fmt → lint → test)
mise run check

# Install binary to $GOBIN
mise run install

# Remove build artifacts
mise run clean

A devcontainer is included for VS Code / GitHub Codespaces — it installs mise and runs mise run setup automatically on attach.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome. Please read the Code of Conduct before participating.

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feat/my-feature)
3. Run mise run check before pushing
4. Open a pull request

Security

Please do not open public issues for security vulnerabilities. See SECURITY.md for the disclosure process.

License

GNU General Public License v3.0