One CLI for all JVM diagnostics. 55 commands, zero agent required, works on Java 11+. GC analysis, health diagnosis, flame graphs, interactive TUI — the free alternative to GCEasy + jcmd + VisualVM combined.
# Install (macOS / Linux)
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rlaope/argus/master/install.sh | bash
# Windows (PowerShell)
irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rlaope/argus/master/install.ps1 | iex
# Try it now
argus ps # List JVM processes
argus doctor <pid> # One-click health diagnosis
argus tui # Interactive terminal UI| Argus | Arthas | VisualVM | jcmd | GCEasy | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CLI diagnostic | ✅ 55 cmds | ✅ | ❌ GUI | ✅ limited | ❌ |
| GC log analysis | ✅ free | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | 💰 paid |
| Health diagnosis | ✅ doctor | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Interactive TUI | ✅ k9s-style | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Virtual Threads | ✅ JFR-based | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| CI/CD gate | ✅ exit codes | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Prometheus/Grafana | ✅ native | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| K8s Helm chart | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Web dashboard | ✅ real-time | tunnel | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ web |
| i18n | 🌏 en/ko/ja/zh | 🇨🇳 zh | 🇬🇧 en | 🇬🇧 en | 🇬🇧 en |
| Cost | Free | Free | Free | Free | Paid |
Arthas = debugging (bytecode, tracing). Argus = observability (monitoring, diagnosis, metrics). They complement each other.
$ argus doctor 39113
╭─ Health Diagnosis ── pid:39113 ─────────────────────────────────────────────╮
│ │
│ ✅ Heap usage normal 41M / 256M (16%) │
│ ✅ GC overhead acceptable 0.3% │
│ ✅ No deadlocks detected │
│ ✅ Thread count normal 29 threads │
│ ⚠ Metaspace near limit 96.5% — consider -XX:MaxMetaspaceSize │
│ ⚠ Old Gen elevated 41.8% — monitor for promotion pressure │
│ │
│ Overall: WARN — 2 recommendations │
│ │
│ Tuning Tips │
│ → Add -XX:MaxMetaspaceSize=256m to prevent unlimited growth │
│ → Run argus gclog <file> to analyze GC pressure over time │
│ │
╰──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯
$ argus gclog gc.log
╭─ GC Log Analysis ── gc.log ─────────────────────────────────────────────────╮
│ │
│ Collector: G1GC │
│ Duration: 3h 42m (13,320 events) │
│ │
│ Pause Distribution │
│ p50 12ms ████░░░░░░ │
│ p95 48ms ████████░░ │
│ p99 124ms ██████████ │
│ max 311ms ██████████ ← Full GC detected │
│ │
│ GC Overhead: 2.1% (healthy < 5%) │
│ Allocation Rate: 142 MB/s │
│ Full GC Count: 3 (potential memory pressure) │
│ │
│ Recommendations │
│ → Increase -Xmx to reduce Full GC frequency │
│ → Consider -XX:G1HeapRegionSize=16m for large heap │
│ │
╰──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯
$ argus watch 39113
╭─ JVM Watch ── pid:39113 ── OpenJDK 21.0.9 ── refreshing every 2s ───────────╮
│ │
│ Heap [███░░░░░░░░░░░░░] 41M / 256M (16%) ↑ +2M/s │
│ Metaspace [███████████████░░░░] 247M / 256M (96%) │
│ │
│ CPU [██░░░░░░░░░░░░░░] 12% GC overhead: 0.3% │
│ │
│ Threads: 29 total (RUNNABLE:11 WAITING:13 TIMED_WAITING:5) │
│ YGC: 18 (0.163s) FGC: 2 (0.215s) Uptime: 57m 5s │
│ │
│ Top Heap Objects │
│ 1. byte[] 111.0K instances 16M │
│ 2. java.lang.String 107.2K instances 2M │
│ 3. java.lang.Class 18.9K instances 2M │
│ │
│ ⚠ Metaspace at 96% — near limit │
│ │
│ [q]uit [r]efresh [h]eap [t]hreads [g]c │
╰──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯
$ argus tui
╭─ Argus TUI ─────────────────────────── [R]ead [W]rite [?]help [q]quit ───╮
│ │
│ JVM Processes │
│ ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── │
│ PID Name Java Heap Uptime │
│ 39113 ▶ com.example.MyApp 21.0.9 41M/256M 57m │
│ 29286 org.gradle.launcher 17.0.8 88M/512M 12m │
│ 11042 io.confluent.kafka.Server 11.0.21 312M/1G 3h 14m │
│ │
│ Commands │ Output │
│ ──────────────────────────────── │ ─────────────────────────────── │
│ doctor Health diagnosis │ ✅ Heap OK ⚠ Metaspace 96% │
│ heap Memory breakdown │ 41M / 256M (16%) │
│ gc GC statistics │ YGC:18 FGC:2 overhead:0.3% │
│ threads Thread summary │ 29 threads, 0 deadlocks │
│ profile CPU profiling │ │
│ flame Flame graph (HTML) │ │
│ │
│ [↑↓] select process [tab] switch panel [enter] run command │
╰──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯
Additional showcase:
$ argus report 39113
╭─ JVM Report ── pid:39113 ── source:auto ─────────────────────────────────────╮
│ │
│ ▸ JVM Info │
│ 39113: OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM version 21.0.9 Uptime: 57m 5s │
│ │
│ ▸ Memory │
│ Heap [███░░░░░░░░░░░░░] 41M / 256M (16%) │
│ Free 215M │
│ │
│ ▸ GC │
│ S0: 0% S1: 0% Eden: 0% Old: 42% Meta: 97% │
│ │
│ ▸ Threads │
│ Total: 29 Virtual: 0 Platform: 29 │
│ TIMED_WAITING: 5 WAITING: 13 RUNNABLE: 11 │
│ │
│ ▸ Top Heap Objects │
│ 1. byte[] 111.0K instances 16M │
│ 2. java.lang.String 107.2K instances 2M │
│ 3. java.lang.Class 18.9K instances 2M │
│ │
│ ▸ Warnings │
│ ⚠ Metaspace at 97% — near limit │
│ │
╰──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯
All 55 commands. No agent needed. Works on any running JVM.
Process & System
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
argus ps |
List running JVM processes (with Java version, uptime) |
argus info <pid> |
JVM information, flags, and CPU utilization |
argus env <pid> |
JVM launch environment |
argus sysprops <pid> |
System properties (--filter supported) |
argus vmflag <pid> |
VM flags (--filter, --set supported) |
argus vmset <pid> Flag=val |
Set VM flag at runtime |
argus vmlog <pid> |
JVM unified logging control |
argus jmx <pid> [cmd] |
JMX agent control |
Memory & GC
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
argus heap <pid> |
Heap memory with detailed pool breakdown |
argus histo <pid> |
Heap object histogram |
argus gc <pid> |
GC statistics (collectors, pauses, overhead) |
argus gcutil <pid> |
GC generation utilization (jstat-style) |
argus gccause <pid> |
GC cause with utilization stats |
argus gcnew <pid> |
Young generation GC detail |
argus gcrun <pid> |
Trigger System.gc() remotely |
argus metaspace <pid> |
Detailed metaspace breakdown |
argus nmt <pid> |
Native memory tracking |
argus buffers <pid> |
NIO buffer pool statistics (direct, mapped) |
argus finalizer <pid> |
Finalizer queue status |
argus diff <pid> [interval] |
Heap snapshot diff (leak detection) |
argus heapdump <pid> |
Generate heap dump (with STW warning) |
argus gclog <file> |
GC log analysis — pause distribution, tuning tips (GCEasy alternative) |
Threads
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
argus threads <pid> |
Thread dump summary (daemon, peak counts) |
argus threaddump <pid> |
Full thread dump with stack traces |
argus deadlock <pid> |
Detect Java-level deadlocks |
argus pool <pid> |
Thread pool analysis |
Runtime & Class Loading
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
argus classloader <pid> |
Class loader hierarchy |
argus classstat <pid> |
Class loading statistics |
argus sc <pid> <pattern> |
Search loaded classes by glob pattern |
argus compiler <pid> |
JIT compiler and code cache stats |
argus compilerqueue <pid> |
JIT compilation queue |
argus stringtable <pid> |
Interned string table statistics |
argus symboltable <pid> |
Symbol table statistics |
argus dynlibs <pid> |
Loaded native libraries |
Profiling & Diagnostics
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
argus profile <pid> |
CPU/allocation/lock profiling (async-profiler) |
argus jfr <pid> start|stop|check|dump |
Flight Recorder control |
argus jfranalyze <file.jfr> |
Analyze JFR recording (GC, CPU, hot methods, I/O) |
argus logger <pid> |
View and change log levels at runtime |
argus events <pid> |
VM internal event log (safepoints, deopt, GC) |
argus report <pid> |
Comprehensive diagnostic report |
argus doctor <pid> |
One-click JVM health diagnosis with tuning recommendations |
argus flame <pid> |
One-shot flame graph — profiles, generates HTML, opens browser |
argus suggest <pid> |
JVM flag optimization based on workload analysis |
argus ci |
CI/CD health gate — exit codes + GitHub annotations |
argus compare <pid1> <pid2> |
Side-by-side JVM comparison (live or baseline) |
argus slowlog <pid> |
Real-time slow method detection via JFR streaming |
Monitoring
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
argus top |
Real-time monitoring (agent required) |
argus watch <pid> |
Real-time terminal dashboard (htop for JVM) |
argus tui [pid] |
Interactive terminal UI — browse all commands (k9s-style) |
argus init |
First-time setup (language selection) |
Global Options: --source=auto|agent|jdk · --lang=en|ko|ja|zh · --format=table|json · --no-color
Full output examples for all 55 commands: docs/cli-commands.md
Attach to your JVM for real-time monitoring — WebSocket streaming, flame graphs, Prometheus export, OTLP push.
# Attach agent
java -javaagent:$(argus-agent --path) -jar your-app.jar
# Open dashboard
open http://localhost:9202/
# Enable profiling + flame graph
java -javaagent:~/.argus/argus-agent.jar \
-Dargus.profiling.enabled=true \
-Dargus.contention.enabled=true \
-jar your-app.jar[Argus] JVM Observability Platform v1.0.0
[Argus] JFR streaming started
[Argus] Dashboard: http://localhost:9202/
Dashboard endpoints: / UI · /prometheus metrics · /flame-graph · /gc-analysis · /correlation · /export (CSV/JSON/JSONL)
See Configuration Guide for all agent properties.
Native Prometheus + Grafana integration. Deploy to Kubernetes with the included Helm chart.
# Prometheus scrape endpoint (no extra config needed)
curl http://localhost:9202/prometheus
# Export to OpenTelemetry Collector
java -javaagent:~/.argus/argus-agent.jar \
-Dargus.otlp.enabled=true \
-Dargus.otlp.endpoint=http://localhost:4318/v1/metrics \
-jar your-app.jar
# Docker — diagnose any JVM on the host
docker run --pid=host ghcr.io/rlaope/argus doctor
docker run --pid=host ghcr.io/rlaope/argus watchHelm chart, Grafana dashboard JSON, and K8s setup: docs/kubernetes.md
Add JVM health checks to your pipeline. Exit codes are machine-readable: 0=pass, 1=warnings, 2=critical.
- name: JVM Health Check
uses: rlaope/Argus/action@master
with:
command: ci
fail-on: critical
format: github-annotationsargus ci --pid=auto --fail-on=critical --format=summaryZero-configuration auto-setup for Spring Boot 3.2+ applications.
Maven:
<dependency>
<groupId>io.argus</groupId>
<artifactId>argus-spring-boot-starter</artifactId>
<version>1.0.0</version>
</dependency>Gradle:
implementation 'io.argus:argus-spring-boot-starter:1.0.0'# application.properties
argus.server.port=9202
argus.profiling.enabled=true
argus.contention.enabled=trueThe argus-micrometer module also provides a MeterBinder exposing ~25 JVM metrics to any Micrometer-compatible registry (Prometheus, Datadog, InfluxDB, etc.).
┌─────────────────┐ ┌─────────────────┐ ┌─────────────────┐
│ argus-agent │───▶│ argus-core │◀───│ argus-server │
│ (JFR Stream) │ │ (Config/Buffer) │ │ (Netty/Analysis)│
└─────────────────┘ └─────────────────┘ └─────────────────┘
│ ▲ │
│ │ ▼
▼ ┌──────┴──────┐ ┌─────────────────┐
┌─────────────────┐ │ argus-cli │ │ argus-frontend │
│ Target JVM │◀────│ (Unified │ │ (Dashboard UI) │
└─────────────────┘ │ Diagnostic)│ └─────────────────┘
▲ jcmd └─────────────┘ │
│ │ │ WebSocket +
└───────────────────┘ HTTP Polling Flame Graph
Direct JDK Access (Agent Mode)
┌──────────────────────────┐ ┌──────────────────────────────────┐
│ argus-micrometer │ │ argus-spring-boot-starter │
│ (MeterBinder, ~25 │ │ (Spring Boot 3.2+ auto-config) │
│ metrics bridge) │ │ │
└──────────────────────────┘ └──────────────────────────────────┘
| Module | Description |
|---|---|
| argus-core | Shared config, event models, ring buffer |
| argus-agent | Java agent with JFR streaming engine |
| argus-server | Netty HTTP/WS server, 10 analyzers, Prometheus + OTLP |
| argus-frontend | Static dashboard with Chart.js and d3-flamegraph |
| argus-cli | 55 diagnostic commands, auto source detection, i18n |
| argus-micrometer | Micrometer MeterBinder exposing ~25 JVM metrics |
| argus-spring-boot-starter | Spring Boot 3.2+ auto-configuration for Argus agent |
| Feature | Java 11+ | Java 17+ | Java 21+ |
|---|---|---|---|
| CLI (55 commands) | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Dashboard & Web UI | — | ✅ | ✅ |
| GC Analysis | CLI only | ✅ MXBean | ✅ JFR |
| Virtual Thread Monitoring | — | — | ✅ JFR |
| Flame Graph | — | — | ✅ JFR |
| Micrometer Metrics | — | ✅ | ✅ |
| Spring Boot Starter | — | ✅ | ✅ |
# macOS / Linux
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rlaope/argus/master/install.sh | bash
# Windows (PowerShell)
irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rlaope/argus/master/install.ps1 | iex
# Build from source
git clone https://github.com/rlaope/argus.git && cd argus
./gradlew :argus-cli:fatJar
# Uninstall
rm -rf ~/.argusShell completions (bash, zsh, fish, PowerShell) are installed automatically.
Contributions welcome — bugs, features, docs, tests. See CONTRIBUTING.md · Architecture · CLI Reference
Maintainer: @rlaope
MIT License — see LICENSE for details.