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Port Authority
A local daemon that hands out ports so they never collide
Port Authority is a small local daemon that hands out ports on request: real socket checks (not just its own registry), known-service defaults (postgres, redis, mysql...), stale-allocation cleanup, and an MCP server so any AI agent can request a port too. CLI + Python library. MIT licensed, free.
I kept hitting port collisions. One project's dev server grabs 3000, another grabs it too, Docker containers squat on ports my scripts assumed were free, and increasingly it's coding agents spinning up services with no idea what else is running on the box.
Port Authority is a small local daemon that hands out ports on request instead of everyone hardcoding or guessing. Ask for a port and you get one back; ask again and you get the same one; ask from a different project and you get a different one. Before it hands out a port it actually tries to bind it, not just checks its own registry, so it also steps around things it didn't allocate.
A few things I wanted to get right rather than hack together: known services (postgres, redis, mysql...) get their canonical port first, falling back to the pool if something else already has it; a background sweep reclaims ports whose owner crashed and never released them; local-only REST API with token auth; and it ships as a CLI, a Python library, and a real MCP server so any MCP-compatible agent can call it as a native tool.
MIT licensed, tested on Linux and macOS. First time posting something publicly, would love to hear how you've solved this on your own machines.
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About Port Authority on Product Hunt
“A local daemon that hands out ports so they never collide”
Port Authority was submitted on Product Hunt and earned 0 upvotes and 1 comments, placing #55 on the daily leaderboard. Port Authority is a small local daemon that hands out ports on request: real socket checks (not just its own registry), known-service defaults (postgres, redis, mysql...), stale-allocation cleanup, and an MCP server so any AI agent can request a port too. CLI + Python library. MIT licensed, free.
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Who hunted Port Authority?
Port Authority was hunted by Tyler Hill. A “hunter” on Product Hunt is the community member who submits a product to the platform — uploading the images, the link, and tagging the makers behind it. Hunters typically write the first comment explaining why a product is worth attention, and their followers are notified the moment they post. Around 79% of featured launches on Product Hunt are self-hunted by their makers, but a well-known hunter still acts as a signal of quality to the rest of the community. See the full all-time top hunters leaderboard to discover who is shaping the Product Hunt ecosystem.
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Tyler Hill