Coffee Port vs VS Code port views
Excellent while the editor is open and the server is up. It is a view of the running machine, and it stops at the edge of the window.
Remembers it only while it is running
What it remembers
The built-in Ports view is part of remote and container development, and lists forwarded ports for the session. Extensions such as Localhost Ports Viewer add a sidebar of currently listening ports, with starred favourites that persist across restarts — but the row itself only exists while something is on the port.
Sources: VS Code: local port forwarding, Localhost Ports Viewer on the Marketplace. Checked .
What Coffee Port cannot do
It cannot see what is running. A web page has no way to list the sockets on your machine, and the way to get one — a daemon on localhost for the browser to talk to — would mean opening up the policy that stops a compromised page sending your decrypted ledger somewhere else. That is not a trade worth making for a list of process ids you can already get in a second.
So these are not rivals. VS Code port views answers what is on 3000 right now; this answers what 3000 is for. Most people who want the second one already have the first.
Point by point
| Point of comparison | VS Code port views | Coffee Port |
|---|---|---|
| What is listening right now | Forwarded ports for the session, or — with an extension — a live sidebar of what is listening, updated as servers start and stop. | Nothing. A web page cannot see what is bound to a port, and this one does not pretend to — pair it with any of the tools on this page for that half. |
| What it shows | Ports forwarded for this session, or — with an extension — what is listening on this machine now. | Every port you have claimed, running or not. |
| A port nothing is bound to | No row, so nothing to label. | A ledger. A port stays in it whether or not anything is bound to it, so 4012 still says which project claimed it and why after three months of not being run. |
| Across projects | Per window. Two projects open in two windows are two lists, and a project that is not open is not a list at all. | One ledger, every project, whether or not any of them is open in an editor. |
| Choosing a new port | Yours to pick. | Hands out the next free number by rule — 40xx for personal things, 41xx for client work, or whatever you write — and says which rule chose it. |
| Cost | Free, and already in the editor. | Free while it is in invite-only beta. |
Which to use
Use VS Code port views when
- You want to click a port and open it, without leaving the editor.
- You are working in a container, a codespace or over SSH, where the forwarding is the point.
- You want one fewer tab, which is a real thing to want.
Use Coffee Port when
- You use more than one editor, or an editor is not where you plan your ports.
- You want the record to be about the project rather than about the window that happens to be open.
- You want to hand out the next number by rule and be told why it was chosen.
Questions
- How do I see which ports are in use in VS Code?
- The Ports view — part of the remote and container development tooling — lists ports forwarded for the current session, and you can forward one by hand from the same panel. For plain local development, an extension such as Localhost Ports Viewer adds a sidebar of what is currently listening.
- Does VS Code remember port numbers between projects?
- Not as a record you can read later. Forwarded ports belong to a session, and an extension's list is what is listening now. A project you have not opened this week does not appear.