DevOps & Infrastructure

PM2 Process Manager

Manage Node.js applications in production with PM2 clustering, zero-downtime reloads, log management, and ecosystem configuration.

Claude Code Codex Cursor Gemini CLI

Overview

PM2 is the de facto process manager for Node.js applications in production. It handles clustering across CPU cores, zero-downtime reloads, automatic restarts on crash, log management, and startup script generation. AI agents can generate sophisticated ecosystem configuration files, troubleshoot memory leaks, and optimize cluster settings based on your server resources.

AI coding agents are particularly effective with PM2 because its ecosystem.config.js file is standard JavaScript. The agent can generate multi-app configurations with environment-specific variables, set up log rotation, configure cluster mode with the right number of instances for your server, and create deployment workflows that pull from git and restart gracefully.

Advanced PM2 patterns include blue-green deployments, watch mode with ignore patterns for development, memory limit-based restarts, and integration with monitoring tools. Your AI agent can implement all of these patterns and help you transition from a simple `node app.js` to a production-grade deployment with proper process management.

Who Is This For?

Node.js developers deploying applications with zero-downtime reloads
DevOps engineers configuring PM2 cluster mode across multiple CPU cores
Teams setting up PM2 ecosystem files with environment-specific configurations
System administrators troubleshooting memory leaks with PM2 monitoring

Installation

Setup for Claude Code

npm install -g pm2
Claude Code generates ecosystem.config.js and runs pm2 commands directly

Configuration

// ecosystem.config.cjs
module.exports = {
  apps: [{
    name: "my-app",
    script: "./dist/server/entry.mjs",
    instances: "max",
    exec_mode: "cluster",
    env: { NODE_ENV: "production", PORT: 4321 },
    max_memory_restart: "500M",
    log_date_format: "YYYY-MM-DD HH:mm:ss",
  }],
};