ProcessSpy
ProcessSpy is a macOS process monitor that helps developers and power users inspect running apps, process trees, resource usage, and system details.
What is ProcessSpy?
ProcessSpy is a native macOS utility for monitoring and inspecting running processes in more detail than Activity Monitor. It is designed for developers, administrators, and advanced users who need to identify what is running, trace parent-child process relationships, and examine command lines, open files, and other process metadata. The app includes tools for viewing process hierarchies, searching with multiple properties, and tracking CPU, memory, disk I/O, and related activity over time. It also supports a menu bar dashboard for quick monitoring and can trigger macOS Shortcuts on process events. ProcessSpy runs locally on Mac and is built for Apple Silicon and Intel systems running modern versions of macOS.
Key features
- View running processes with detailed command-line and path information
- Inspect process trees and aggregate resource usage across related child processes
- Search and filter processes with multi-property queries and regular expressions
- Track CPU, memory, disk I/O, and other resource history over time
- Review finished processes later instead of losing them when they exit
- Use a menu bar dashboard for quick system and process monitoring
- Inspect open files, environment variables, signatures, and bundle details
- Trigger macOS Shortcuts when processes start or finish
Review app leftovers with diCleaner
Inspect caches, support files, containers, and login items before cleaning.
Safety overview
Status: Mostly safe
ProcessSpy’s monitoring features are consistent with its purpose as a process inspection tool. It is distributed as an Apple-notarized Mac app and is intended to read system process information locally. Because it can expose detailed information such as command lines, open files, environment variables, and app metadata, use it on Macs where that level of visibility is appropriate and be mindful when reviewing sensitive workloads or shared user sessions.
Recommendation: Keep ProcessSpy if you use it for troubleshooting, development, or detailed system monitoring on your Mac. If you no longer need advanced process inspection, you can remove it like other user-installed apps without affecting normal macOS operation beyond losing its monitoring features.
Common paths
/Applications/ProcessSpy.app
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