Kranz

Lifecycle, not terminal tabs

Dependency-aware start and reverse-order stop for local processes and detached external resources.

State you can trust

Separate readiness, liveness, lifecycle status, runtime port discovery, and explicit unknown state.

Operations beside services

Run migrations, builds, checks, and project actions with captured output, timeout, and confirmation.

One action, typed inputs

Replace copied commands with checkbox, choice, text, and number parameters shared by TUI, CLI, MCP, and prerequisites.

One MCP server, shared live runtimes

Runs keep their evidence

Address service and action executions by stable number, then inspect bounded logs, status, duration, cause, and provenance.

Bring your existing config

Start with a Procfile, a supported Process Compose file, or native Kranz YAML when you need the full model.

Independent by design

Keep project runtimes alive across client disconnects and switch between them in one TUI, without a global daemon or second control plane.

Kranz in one minute

Your project probably has a web app, an API, a worker, a database, and a few commands you run by hand. Kranz turns those pieces into one local workspace:

open Kranz in the project directory;

select the service you need;

press s;

watch dependencies start in order and logs arrive in one place;

press s again to stop, with confirmation.

Kranz starts one independent supervisor for each active project. The TUI, CLI, and MCP connect as clients; detaching a client leaves the runtime alone, while an explicit shutdown stops what the runtime owns. Kranz is not a container runtime, deployment platform, global daemon, or machine-wide control plane.

New here?

Start with What is Kranz?, then follow the five-minute quickstart. No YAML is required.

Pick the path that matches your project

You already have	Start here
A whole product and want to see everything at once	MoonFlight showcase
A few shell commands	Procfile quickstart
Services with dependencies and health checks	Native YAML example
A `process-compose.yaml`	Process Compose example
Several repositories or configuration formats	Configuration composition catalog
Docker Compose or remote infrastructure	Detached lifecycle example
A larger API/worker graph	Full-stack example
Migrations or setup that must run first	Prerequisites example
Repeated commands that differ only by flags or values	Action parameters example
Processes that choose ports at runtime	Runtime-port laboratory
A coding agent that should join your live stack	MCP shared-runtime example

You already have

Start here

A whole product and want to see everything at once

MoonFlight showcase

A few shell commands

Procfile quickstart

Services with dependencies and health checks

Native YAML example

A process-compose.yaml

Process Compose example

Several repositories or configuration formats

Configuration composition catalog

Docker Compose or remote infrastructure

Detached lifecycle example

A larger API/worker graph

Full-stack example

Migrations or setup that must run first

Prerequisites example

Repeated commands that differ only by flags or values

Action parameters example

Processes that choose ports at runtime

Runtime-port laboratory

A coding agent that should join your live stack

MCP shared-runtime example

What Kranz keeps together

Services are long-running things such as an API, Vite server, or worker.

Dependencies describe what must start first and when it is actually ready.

Actions are one-shot jobs such as lint, test, build, migrate, or inspect.

Health checks distinguish “the process exists” from “the service is ready.”

Detached lifecycle lets Kranz operate external resources without owning their PID, while an optional status probe reconnects state across sessions.

See the core concepts for a picture of how these pieces fit together, or jump directly to the runnable examples.