The process manager is a dialog that shows every CLI process Lanes knows about. It is your go-to tool for understanding what is running, cleaning up after crashes, and reclaiming system resources.
Opening the Process Manager
There are two ways to open it:
- Click the process icon in the status bar at the bottom of the window.
- Open it from the application menu.
The dialog appears as an overlay on top of your board.
What It Shows
Each row in the process list displays:
- Process name -- the CLI that is running (e.g., "claude", "codex").
- PID -- the operating system process ID.
- Associated issue -- if the process is linked to an issue, its title appears here as a clickable link. You can jump straight to the issue from the process manager.
- Classification -- one of three categories described below.
Process Classifications
Lanes organizes processes into three groups so you can quickly understand their origin and status:
Tracked
Processes that Lanes started and is actively managing. These are the normal case -- each one corresponds to a running session attached to an issue. Lanes monitors their lifecycle, captures their output, and tracks their metrics.
Orphan
Processes that Lanes previously started, but whose session has ended or disconnected. This can happen if Lanes exits unexpectedly, if a session crashes, or if a process outlives its session for any reason. Orphans are still running and consuming resources, but Lanes is no longer actively managing them.
External
CLI processes discovered on your system that Lanes did not start. Lanes scans
for known CLI processes (like claude or codex) and lists them here for
visibility. This helps you spot agents running outside of Lanes that might
conflict with your work or consume resources.
Killing a Single Process
Click the kill button next to any process to terminate it. Lanes sends a graceful termination signal (SIGTERM) first. If the process does not exit within a few seconds, it escalates to a forced kill (SIGKILL).
Stop Sessions vs Kill All
At the top of the process manager, you have two bulk actions:
-
Stop Sessions -- Sends a graceful stop signal to all tracked sessions. This is the polite option: it tells each agent session to wrap up and exit cleanly. Orphan and external processes are not affected.
-
Kill All -- Terminates every process in the list, regardless of classification. Use this when you need a clean slate -- for example, after a crash left several orphaned processes behind.
Refreshing the Process List
Click the refresh button to rescan for current processes. The list updates to reflect any processes that have started or stopped since you opened the dialog. This is useful if you killed a process externally or if a session just finished.
When to Use the Process Manager
You do not need the process manager during normal operation -- Lanes handles session lifecycles automatically. It becomes useful in these situations:
-
Orphaned processes consuming resources -- After a crash or unexpected quit, orphaned agent processes may still be running. Open the process manager to find and kill them.
-
Cleanup after crashes -- If Lanes restarts after a crash, old processes may still be alive. The process manager shows them as orphans so you can clean up.
-
Seeing what is running -- When you have multiple sessions going and want a single view of all active processes, their PIDs, resource usage, and which issues they belong to.
-
Spotting external agents -- If something feels slow or a port is in use, check for external CLI processes that might be competing for resources.
Tips
- Get in the habit of checking the process manager after a crash or force-quit. Orphaned AI agents can rack up API costs if left running.
- The status bar icon gives you a quick count of running processes without opening the full dialog.
- Use "Stop Sessions" for routine cleanup; reserve "Kill All" for situations where you want everything shut down.