pm2

PM2 provides a command‑line interface for running Node.js and Bun applications as background services. It daemonizes processes, keeps them alive indefinitely, and offers commands to start, stop, restart, and delete applications, as well as to view detailed status and logs. The tool also includes a built‑in load balancer that can launch multiple instances of a Node.js program in cluster mode, distributing HTTP, TCP, or UDP traffic across CPU cores and supporting zero‑downtime reloads.

The manager is intended for developers and system administrators who need to deploy and maintain production‑grade services without writing custom init scripts. It works on Linux, macOS, and Windows, and supports all recent Node.js versions (starting with 20.x) and Bun. Installation is performed via npm or Bun, and a special `pm2-runtime` command enables seamless integration with container platforms such as Docker.

Additional features include a terminal‑based monitoring UI, host‑level vitals display, and the ability to manage non‑Node processes (e.g., Python, Ruby, binaries) that are available on the system path. The project is stable, widely used, and backed by an extensive test suite.