I Stopped Killing My Dev Server. I Park It Instead.

📰 Medium · Programming

Learn how to use a CLI tool called 'park' to freeze and resume a running process, releasing its TCP port without losing in-memory caches or build watcher state, and why it matters for efficient development workflows

intermediate Published 12 Apr 2026

Action Steps

Install 'park' using the provided one-liner command
Use 'park' to freeze a running process on a specific port, e.g., 'park 3000'
Verify that the process has been frozen and the port is released
Resume the frozen process using 'park resume 3000'
Test that the resumed process is working as expected, e.g., using 'curl localhost:3000'

Who Needs to Know This

Developers and DevOps engineers can benefit from using 'park' to streamline their development processes and reduce downtime, making it easier to test and deploy applications

Key Insight

💡 The 'park' tool allows developers to efficiently manage running processes and release TCP ports without incurring downtime or losing valuable state information

Key Takeaways

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Title: I Stopped Killing My Dev Server. I Park It Instead.

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Published Time: 2026-04-12T19:08:36Z

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# I Stopped Killing My Dev Server. I Park It Instead. | by Vaibhav Shukla | Apr, 2026 | Medium

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# I Stopped Killing My Dev Server. I Park It Instead.

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Every developer has done this: you’re running a dev server on port 3000. You need that port for 30 seconds to test something else. So you kill the server, lose your in-memory caches, build watcher state,

websocket clients, and warm-up time. Then you restart everything from scratch.

I did this five times a day until I decided to fix it.

I built park — a CLI tool that freezes a running process AND releases its TCP port, then brings it back later. Same PID. Same memory. Same open files. The process has no idea anything happened.

$ park 3000

$ python3 -m http.server 3000 &

$ kill %1

$ park resume 3000

$ curl localhost:3000
Watch the demo: [https://asciinema.org/a/920996](https://asciinema.org/a/920996)

Install in one line:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent

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I Stopped Killing My Dev Server. I Park It Instead.

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