SMF·UNCIRCLE
Can a prompt replace Uncircle?
Developer tools — dev-stack workspace for CLI agents
Exhibit tracking slip
Verdict
The core loop — read a list of processes from a config file, run them, stream their logs into terminals, show live status — is a genuine one-sitting build on mature libraries, and free open-source terminal multiplexers already give you most of it. What doesn't come free is everything around that core: a real native app with tray and notifications, reliably killing whole process trees without orphans across operating systems, restart logic that doesn't flap, and signed auto-updating builds. Since the paid product is a one-time purchase rather than a subscription, the usual math is different too: it's not about ongoing cost, it's whether an evening of building beats paying once.
Exhibit A — The prompt
Received on30.07.2026Build a local dev-stack dashboard: a single process, started from any project folder, that reads a config file listing the processes that make up your dev stack (name, command, working directory) and opens a local web page. Run each process in a real pseudo-terminal and stream its output over a websocket into a browser-based terminal, one tab per process. A sidebar lists every process with a status indicator and start/stop/restart controls, plus start-all and stop-all — stopping a process must kill its entire process tree, not just the top-level command, so nothing gets orphaned. If a process exits with an error, auto-restart it with backoff, and flag it clearly if it keeps crashing in a loop. Scan process output for localhost URLs and render them as clickable links above each terminal. Support ad-hoc shell tabs too, so a CLI coding agent can run inside the same dashboard alongside your actual dev processes.
Do not build a native window, system tray integration, notifications, or multi-repo management — this is a browser-based dashboard for one repo per running instance, and that's a deliberate, honest scope boundary against the real native app.Opening prefills the prompt — press enter to run it.
Exhibit B — What you lose
- B.1 a real native app with tray icon and system notifications
- B.2 reliable process-tree cleanup and restart logic across operating systems
- B.3 built-in presets for popular coding agents
- B.4 a file editor and diff view built into the same window
Prior art
Exhibit C — Why people still pay: native polish + process-management edge cases
It's a one-time purchase with a free tier, so the real question isn't subscription math — it's whether an evening spent building this beats paying once for something that already handles clean process shutdown, non-flapping restarts, and native notifications correctly.
Questions
Can I import my existing Uncircle setup?
Uncircle's process configuration is a plain file per project, and recreating it in this build's own config format is usually a direct, short translation.
Will it work on my phone?
Viewing terminal output works in a phone browser in a pinch, but this is fundamentally a developer tool meant for a desktop screen next to your editor.
What does it cost to run?
Nothing beyond your own machine — no hosting, no API key, no subscription, since it's a local dashboard for local processes.
What's the one thing that doesn't survive the rebuild?
Reliability under stress. Clean shutdown of whole process trees, restart logic that doesn't flap, and native crash notifications are all the kind of detail that's easy to get mostly right and genuinely hard to get exactly right — that gap shows up on a bad day, not a demo.
Related tools
Receipt