Argus

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.

Quick Start

# 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

Why Argus?

	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.

Key Features

`argus doctor <pid>` — One-Click Health Diagnosis

$ 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 (GCEasy Alternative, Free)

$ 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 <pid>` — Real-Time Terminal Dashboard (htop for JVM)

$ 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` — Interactive Terminal UI (k9s-style)

$ 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                                          │
│                                                                              │
╰──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯

Command Reference

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)

Full output examples for all 55 commands: docs/cli-commands.md

Argus Agent & Dashboard

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.

Monitoring Stack

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 watch

Helm chart, Grafana dashboard JSON, and K8s setup: docs/kubernetes.md

CI/CD Integration

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-annotations

argus ci --pid=auto --fail-on=critical --format=summary

Spring Boot Integration

Zero-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=true

The argus-micrometer module also provides a MeterBinder exposing ~25 JVM metrics to any Micrometer-compatible registry (Prometheus, Datadog, InfluxDB, etc.).

Architecture

┌─────────────────┐    ┌─────────────────┐    ┌─────────────────┐
│   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

Java Version Compatibility

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	—	✅	✅

Installation

# 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 ~/.argus

Shell completions (bash, zsh, fish, PowerShell) are installed automatically.

Contributing & License

Contributions welcome — bugs, features, docs, tests. See CONTRIBUTING.md · Architecture · CLI Reference

Maintainer: @rlaope

MIT License — see LICENSE for details.

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Argus

Quick Start

Why Argus?

Key Features

`argus doctor <pid>` — One-Click Health Diagnosis

`argus gclog gc.log` — GC Log Analysis (GCEasy Alternative, Free)

`argus watch <pid>` — Real-Time Terminal Dashboard (htop for JVM)

`argus tui` — Interactive Terminal UI (k9s-style)

Command Reference

Argus Agent & Dashboard

Monitoring Stack

CI/CD Integration

Spring Boot Integration

Architecture

Java Version Compatibility

Installation

Contributing & License

Uh oh!

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README.md

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Argus

Quick Start

Why Argus?

Key Features

argus doctor <pid> — One-Click Health Diagnosis

argus gclog gc.log — GC Log Analysis (GCEasy Alternative, Free)

argus watch <pid> — Real-Time Terminal Dashboard (htop for JVM)

argus tui — Interactive Terminal UI (k9s-style)

Command Reference

Argus Agent & Dashboard

Monitoring Stack

CI/CD Integration

Spring Boot Integration

Architecture

Java Version Compatibility

Installation

Contributing & License

`argus doctor <pid>` — One-Click Health Diagnosis

`argus gclog gc.log` — GC Log Analysis (GCEasy Alternative, Free)

`argus watch <pid>` — Real-Time Terminal Dashboard (htop for JVM)

`argus tui` — Interactive Terminal UI (k9s-style)