macOS · Apple Silicon + Intel
Switchboard starts, stops, and monitors local services and development tools from one focused macOS app, without juggling terminal windows.
Open the downloaded .dmg, drag Switchboard into your
Applications folder, and open it. That's it.
Universal build for Apple Silicon and Intel Macs, macOS 12 (Monterey) or later.
AI-dev command center
Before an agent acts on your Mac, Switchboard can tell it — and you — what is running, what is hot, what is stale, what owns each port, and what local stack it is about to touch.
One structured read covers current time and timezone, memory and CPU pressure, hot local AI runtimes, stale coding-agent sessions, port attention, and recent service failures. Agents can call it at session start and know what they're walking into.
Switchboard detects Ollama, LM Studio, llama.cpp, MLX model servers, and coding-agent helpers like Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, and VS Code — with ports, CPU/memory, and project path attached.
Connect Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, Claude Desktop, Gemini CLI, Qwen Code, OpenCode, and others via a private local MCP server — agents get read-only environment context, service controls, port inspection, and workspace groups — all structured, audited, and bounded. Free use includes a read-only preview of profiles, methods, exclusions, and context-cost estimates.
Services, ports, logs, runtimes, and agent sessions are grouped by project path into workspace stacks — so you and your agent both see what belongs to the same codebase right now, not just a flat process list.
Local context
Without Switchboard, AI clients start blind — no idea what time it is locally, what owns port 3000, whether a model runtime is already running, or whether a service from yesterday is still holding resources.
Agents always know the local date, time, and timezone — so log timestamps, cron schedules, and "run this now" make sense without guessing.
Ollama, LM Studio, llama.cpp, and MLX servers are identified before an agent tries to spin up a duplicate — saving memory and avoiding port collisions.
Port attention items — blocked ports, drifted listeners, and duplicate dev servers — surface in the briefing so agents check before starting anything new.
CPU load, memory pressure, swap use, and battery state are included — so an agent knows whether the machine can handle another build or model inference before it tries.
Developers, engineers, and power users who run several local tools throughout the day.
A fast, lightweight native macOS control center.
See service health and take action without hunting through terminal windows.
Start free, use azzuwayed Pro, or keep a lifetime Switchboard license.
Every listening port, with the actual process and project name
attached — not just node 41327. Conflicts are
flagged where two things claim the same port.
Homebrew, Docker, HTTP, or any command you trust. Switchboard polls each one on its own cadence and shows you the rolling stopped / degraded / unknown breakdown — not a single misleading "100% errors" number.
Launchd plist StandardOutPath /
StandardErrorPath, Docker logs, command output,
service log files, command output, and Switchboard activity —
all merged into one live timeline with the optional Stream tool,
including arbitrary manual log files.
Postgres, MySQL, MongoDB, Redis, Docker Compose, Ollama, nginx, generic HTTP + command. Every preset's commands are reviewed and approved — no shell magic, no surprises.
Switchboard never executes a shell string from the UI. Every
action maps to an exact allowlisted cmd +
args. Destructive ones (delete, force-stop, install
from network) require an explicit per-command approval the first
time.
No background HTTP server. Your config and logs live under
~/Library/Application Support/ and never leave your
Mac. The one thing Switchboard sends is an anonymous
active-install count, with no account, installation token, or
raw IP stored. On by default; one toggle off in Settings →
Privacy.
See it in action
These are real Switchboard screens captured from a local demo fixture: discovered services, port sprawl, and live logs.
Where it fits
Activity Monitor says node. Switchboard says which
project, which agent session, which port, how long it has been
running, whether it is abnormal, and what safe action exists.
Catch the extra Vite, Next.js, FastAPI, or Rails servers that
walked from 5173 to 5174 to
5175.
See the local service behind the resource spike instead of
guessing from process names like node,
python, docker, or
ollama.
Recover the database, worker, tunnel, custom command, docs, and logs without reverse-engineering the setup again.
Inspect listeners, link them to services, reveal or stop the owning process, and adopt useful discoveries as monitor-only services.
Keep Ollama, LM Studio, OpenClaw, vector stores, model servers, API shims, dashboards, logs, and resource usage in one place.
Ask your AI assistant to create clean Switchboard entries for dev servers, Docker containers, Compose stacks, and Homebrew services with actions, links, logs, and resource hints.
Pricing
Switchboard stays useful for free. Get the complete AI-dev command center through azzuwayed Pro while your membership is active, or buy a Lifetime license for permanent Switchboard ownership.
No account. No key. Forever.
Keep your own services visible and under control.
monthly · or 287.52 SAR yearly · up to 3 devices
One membership for Switchboard and every app marked Included with Pro. Access lasts while your membership is active.
≈ 146.25 SAR · one-time · lifetime license · up to 3 Macs
Permanent Switchboard ownership, independent of membership. Includes all Switchboard 1.x updates and account-backed support for at least 2 years.
A Switchboard Lifetime license is $39, charged in SAR through Paylink as a one-time purchase. Got a promo code? Enter it at checkout to get the discount. Purchase requires an azzuwayed.com account at azzuwayed.com — your billing and access history stay with your account, and the key is emailed once payment is confirmed.
Free use still needs no account. Sign in to use azzuwayed Pro, recover a Lifetime purchase, review billing, manage registered devices, and use private priority support. Manual Lifetime-key activation remains available.
Licensed Macs keep working offline for up to 30 days. If access lapses, Switchboard simply returns to Free.
Why this exists
A dev server here, a database there, a tunnel for some experiment
— half of them still running days later, none of them stopped, all
of them quietly using CPU and battery I didn't have to spare.
macOS doesn't tell you about this. Activity Monitor will list the
processes if you go looking, but it won't connect
node to the dev server I started last week.
The problem got worse when I started building with AI coding tools — Cursor, Claude Code, VS Code, the whole crowd. They're great at spinning up dev servers; they're not always great at stopping the previous one before starting the next. Sometimes the agent is smart enough to free the port it needs — sometimes it just walks to the next available one. After a few hours of iteration you can end up with six copies of the same Vite server competing for memory, the laptop running hot, the battery draining fast, and nothing in macOS surfacing any of it.
You know roughly what you run — you just lose track of what's still running. The fan spins up, the battery drops, and nothing in macOS connects it back to that dev server, worker, or model you started days ago and forgot about.
Switchboard is the thing I wanted: one place where every local service shows up, every forgotten process gets surfaced, every port flood gets named with its actual cause, and every AI tool I use can read the local context before it acts. The OS won't tell you. The AI tools won't ask. This will.
Switchboard is built by Abdullah Alzuwayed, an independent developer. I keep it local-first because it is the tool I wanted on my own Mac. You can verify the builder on LinkedIn.
Switchboard is designed to be useful without becoming a shell-in-a-webview — and without giving AI clients raw shell access to your Mac.
Yes — Switchboard stays useful for free: manage unlimited services (start/stop/restart/update with approval review), use the complete Activity, Docs, Observer, Ports, and Maintenance tools, preview MCP Access profiles and methods, and get service-down plus new-arrival notifications. No account, no card, no ads. New installs get a 7-day full-feature trial, then return to free use.
Paid access comes with an active azzuwayed Pro membership or a Switchboard Lifetime license. Both unlock Stream, System Logs, Resources, Uptime, Numerics, and the MCP runtime. Pro includes every app marked “Included with Pro”; the $39 Lifetime license permanently owns Switchboard on up to 3 Macs. See pricing.
A Switchboard Lifetime license activates up to 3 Macs at once. azzuwayed Pro also supports up to 3 registered devices shared across Included with Pro apps. Lifetime purchases can be recovered after signing in or activated manually with the emailed license key.
If you still have the Mac, free its slot from the app: Settings → License & Access → Deactivate. Then activate on the new Mac.
If you can't get to that Mac, sign in and open a private support request so the connected-device slots can be verified and reset safely.
Deactivate on the old Mac (Settings → License & Access → Deactivate), then sign in inside Switchboard on the new Mac and claim your paid access. You can also enter the emailed key manually. If the old Mac is unavailable, use private account support.
Pro customers can sign in for private priority support. For bugs and suggestions, Send Feedback inside Switchboard includes the app version and only the diagnostics you choose. If you cannot sign in or have a general question, use the guest contact form.
Switchboard is built first for developer-ish workflows: projects, local databases, dev servers, containers, local AI tools, and ports. You do not need to be a command-line expert, but it helps if you are trying to understand what your machine is running.
Installing is just drag-to-Applications and open — no Terminal steps, since the app is notarized. Past that you drive Switchboard from its interface, but getting real value out of it assumes you're comfortable with the services, commands, and ports you run on your machine.
Yes on two levels. First, Switchboard is agnostic about what started a process — it watches ports and processes directly, so when your AI coding tool spawns a Vite dev server (or a FastAPI server, or anything else listening locally), Switchboard auto-detects it, tags it Discovered, and gives you a Stop button with confirmation. Doesn't matter which agent or which editor started it.
Second, everyone can preview MCP Access profiles, methods, exclusions, and context-cost estimates inside Switchboard. With azzuwayed Pro or a Switchboard Lifetime license, those same AI tools can connect to the MCP runtime. Supported clients include Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code, Codex, Claude Desktop, Gemini CLI, Qwen Code, OpenCode, and any MCP-compatible harness. They get an environment briefing, service inspection and control, port details, AI runtime inventory, workspace groupings, and structured service creation — all through a private local socket, never a network port.
Switchboard isn't a port pre-assignment tool. Port managers and named-URL routers help an agent pick a free port before it starts a server; killing a port is a one-off. Switchboard gives you the standing, machine-wide picture — what's running, what's draining battery and CPU, what owns each port — plus a safe stop / restart flow, including the long-running local AI tools (Ollama, LM Studio, self-hosted agents) that pile up between sessions. Use them together: coordination decides where things start, Switchboard shows you everything that ends up running.
Not for using the app. Download the .dmg, drag
Switchboard.app into /Applications,
and launch it — free use needs nothing to sign up for.
Joining azzuwayed Pro or buying a Switchboard Lifetime license requires an azzuwayed.com account. Sign in inside Switchboard to use membership access or recover a Lifetime purchase. A Lifetime owner can also paste the emailed key into Settings → License & Access. Manage access through azzuwayed.com.
One thing, and it is anonymous: an active-install count sent via the daily update check so we can see roughly how many people use Switchboard. No account, no identifiers, no installation token, no raw IP stored — and no crash reporter or per-action tracking. The app does not listen on any network port.
Everything else stays on your Mac under
~/Library/Application
Support/com.azzuwayed.switchboard/. Turn the stats off with one toggle in Settings → Privacy
(updates keep working), or disable update checks entirely.
Yes. Direct Switchboard releases are universal macOS builds for Apple Silicon and Intel Macs.
macOS 12 (Monterey) or newer on Apple Silicon or Intel Macs.
The app checks the public updates manifest once a day and shows a non-intrusive banner in the app shell when a new release is available. The in-app flow downloads the update, installs it, and then asks you to restart — the new bundle's minisign signature is verified against the public key compiled into the running app before it swaps.
Prefer to install manually? Disable
Check for updates automatically in Settings and grab
the .dmg from the
releases page
on your own schedule.
Quit Switchboard from the menu bar, drag
Switchboard.app to the Trash, and — if you also
want to delete your services configuration — remove
~/Library/Application
Support/com.azzuwayed.switchboard/. No system-wide installer to undo.
No. Switchboard is proprietary software, and the source repository is not planned to be public.
Use Send Feedback inside Switchboard to open a private support thread with your app version and the diagnostics you choose. You can also open priority support on your account, or use the guest contact form if you cannot sign in.
