Task Manager
See what each app on your Mac is using, open it up to its processes, and end, force quit or revive it.
Open it
Type task manager (or tm, top, kill) and press ↵ on Task Manager. You can give it a hotkey on Settings → Task Manager or Settings → Hotkeys.
Two more commands open it straight on one of its chips: Revive Apps (type frozen or not responding) and Leftover Processes.
The chips above the list are Apps, Revive and Leftover Processes. Press ⇥ for the next one and ⇧⇥ for the one before, or click one. Revive and Leftover Processes show a count when something is waiting there.
The numbers are live only while Task Manager is on screen. When you hide the bar or leave Task Manager, Saiki stops reading them.
The table
Each row is an app, not a single process: an app's helpers and services are counted in its row. Rows are grouped in sections:
| Section | What's in it |
|---|---|
| Apps | Apps with a Dock icon. |
| Background Processes | Your other apps, helpers and command-line tools. |
| System Processes | Processes that run as other users, such as root's background services. |
Type to filter by an app's name, its bundle ID, one of its processes' names, or a PID.
The line at the top
It shows the whole Mac's CPU, Memory pressure (orange when it's high, red when it's critical), Swap in use and GPU. When Monitors is on, click it to open Monitors.
Columns
| Column | What it shows |
|---|---|
| CPU | Percent of one core, as Activity Monitor counts it. |
| Memory | Memory in use, as Activity Monitor's Memory column. |
| Energy | Power the app draws, in watts or milliwatts. |
| Disk | What it reads and writes per second. |
| Network | What it sends and receives per second, measured every 5 seconds. |
| GPU | Its share of the GPU. Off to start with. |
| Proc. | How many processes the app is made of. |
A dash (–) means the number isn't known yet, or macOS won't give it for another user's process.
Sort
Click a column's title to sort by it. Numbers sort highest first and names A to Z; click the same title again to flip the order. ⌘K → Sort By does the same from the keyboard.
See an app's processes
Press ↵ or → on an app (or click the arrow beside it) to list its processes under it. Each shows its name, PID and the user it runs as, with "stopped" when it's paused, and the same columns. Press ↵ again, or ← on the app or any of its processes, to fold it again.
End Task and Force Quit
- Select an app and press ⌘↵ (End Task, also the footer pill), or ⌘⌫ (Force Quit). On an app made of a single process, ↵ is End Task too.
- A card names the app and how many processes it has, and says what will happen. Press ⌘↵ to go ahead, or esc to cancel. Nothing else in the bar acts while the card is up.
- A message says what ended.
| Action | What happens |
|---|---|
| End Task | An app is asked to quit, as with ⌘Q, so it can save. Once it's gone, its remaining processes are asked to stop, and made to after 3 seconds. Anything else is asked to stop, then made to. |
| Force Quit | The app and all its processes end at once. Anything unsaved is lost. |
If an app is still open a few seconds after End Task (it may be asking you to save), Saiki leaves it and everything with it alone, and the message says Force Quit will end it.
On one process of an opened app, ⌘↵ (or ↵) is Kill Process (asked to quit, made to after 3 seconds) and ⌘⌫ is Force Kill (ends at once). Each has its own card.
What it won't end
Right before each signal, Saiki checks that the PID still belongs to the process you were shown. If it has exited or become another process, nothing is sent. It never signals kernel_task, launchd, WindowServer, loginwindow or Saiki itself.
More with ⌘K
Press ⌘K on an app's row for its actions. The keys work straight from the list too.
| Action | Key |
|---|---|
| Show Processes / Hide Processes | ↵ |
| End Task | ⌘↵ |
| Force Quit | ⌘⌫ |
| Restart App | ⌘R |
| Show in Finder | ⇧⌘O |
| Copy PID | ⇧⌘C |
| Sort By | |
| Restart a System Process | |
| Show Monitors | ⌘M |
Restart App shows only for apps with a Dock icon. After its card, the app quits (saving its state) and opens again. Show Processes appears only for apps with more than one process, and Show Monitors only while Monitors is on.
Restart a system process
This submenu lists Finder, Dock, SystemUIServer, coreaudiod, bluetoothd and WindowServer. Each asks first, and the card says what you'll notice:
| Process | What restarting it does |
|---|---|
| Finder | Finder's windows close and it opens again. |
| Dock | The Dock and Mission Control restart; your windows stay. |
| SystemUIServer | The menu bar's system items restart. |
macOS starts each of these again by itself. coreaudiod, bluetoothd and WindowServer run as the system, so like other users' processes they can't be restarted from Saiki yet: after the card, a message says the helper isn't installed. WindowServer's card warns that restarting it would log you out.
Revive frozen or stopped apps
The Revive chip lists your apps with a Dock icon, plus any background app while it's stopped or not responding. Apps that need you come first, each with its state on the right:
| State | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Stopped | The app is paused (suspended) and does nothing until it's resumed. |
| Not responding | macOS reports it as not responding, or its window doesn't answer. |
| Responding / Running | Nothing's wrong. |
| Checking… | Saiki hasn't finished looking yet. |
Press ↵ (Revive) to resume the app. Saiki watches it for a few seconds and the row and a message say how it went: revived, already running, still stopped, still not responding, or that it quit or crashed. If it's still frozen, ⌘⌫ (Force Quit) ends it, after a card warning that anything unsaved is lost.
On a Revive row, ⌘K also has Bring to Front (⌘↵), Show in Finder and Copy PID. Finder, Saiki and macOS's own system components (such as the Dock) aren't listed. Force Quit isn't offered for Finder or apps inside /System.
Checking a window needs the Accessibility permission (see Install and permissions). Without it, Saiki still uses macOS's own "not responding" flag.
Apps that quit unexpectedly
Under Quit Unexpectedly, Revive lists apps that crashed in the last day. Press ↵ to Reopen one. ⌘K has Dismiss, to take it off the list, and Show Crash Report.
Leftover processes
The Leftover Processes chip lists programs still running after the app or terminal that started them closed, such as a python3 http.server or a Gradle daemon. Each row shows what it runs, the folder it started in, its PID, how long it has been running, its memory and its CPU. Type to filter by name, folder or PID.
A process is listed only if it's yours and isn't a background job macOS manages, an app, an app's helper or service, or part of macOS. ssh-agent and the GPG agents are never listed.
| Action | Key |
|---|---|
| Quit (asks it to stop) | ⌘↵ or ↵ |
| Force Quit (ends it at once) | ⌘⌫ |
| Show in Finder | ⇧⌘O |
| Show Folder | |
| Copy PID | ⇧⌘C |
Quit and Force Quit show a card first. Just before the signal, Saiki checks the process again; if it has changed or exited, nothing is sent and a message says so.
Settings
On Settings → Task Manager, the switch at the top turns Task Manager off, along with Revive Apps and Leftover Processes. The Open card holds its hotkey.
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Refresh every | 1, 2 or 5 seconds (the default), only while Task Manager is open. |
| Sort by | The column the table starts sorted by: CPU (the default), Memory, Energy, Disk, Network, GPU, Processes or Name. |
| Group processes by app | On: helpers fold into their app. Off: one row per process. |
| Show system processes | Shows the System Processes section. On to start with. |
| Energy, Disk, Network, GPU and Processes column | Show or hide each column. All are on except GPU. CPU, Memory and the name are always shown. |