Systemd Service Management,
Simplified for Any App.

Core Promises

unitup vs PM2

unitup is not a PM2 replacement or an independent process manager. While PM2 runs its own master daemon, unitup is strictly a thin, transparent CLI layer on top of Linux OS systemd.

Core Architecture

At its core, unitup generates systemd service unit files directly from a generic command + args model rather than being hardcoded to Node.js:

{
  "command": "/usr/bin/python3",
  "args": ["/home/user/apps/worker.py"],
  "cwd": "/home/user/apps",
  "env": {
    "APP_ENV": "production"
  }
}

[Unit]
Description=unitup service: worker
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
SyslogIdentifier=unitup-worker
WorkingDirectory=/home/user/apps
ExecStart=/usr/bin/python3 /home/user/apps/worker.py
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=3
Environment=PATH="/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin:/bin"
Environment=APP_ENV="production"

[Install]
WantedBy=default.target

Supported Runtimes & Auto-Detection

CLI Reference

unitup doctor

# Flags:
# --name         Service name (default: script basename)
# --runtime      Specify runtime (node, python, ruby, php, bun, deno, shell, go, elixir, native)
# --runtime-arg  Argument passed to binary (e.g. -S 0.0.0.0:8080 or --allow-net)
# --command     Explicit binary executable (bypasses auto-detection)
# --arg          Argument to pass to command
# --group      Assign service to group (default: default)
# --env KEY=val       Set environment variable
# --env-file    Load environment file
# --start             Enable and start service immediately
# --force, -f         Force overwrite of currently running service

unitup add worker.py --name worker --group backend --env APP_ENV=production --start

unitup list --group backend

unitup inspect worker

unitup start @backend --enable
unitup restart worker
unitup stop @backend

unitup limits api --memory-high 400M --memory-max 512M --swap-max 256M
unitup limits api --reset-memory

unitup status worker
unitup logs worker --follow --since 1h --priority err --json

unitup journal disk-usage
unitup journal rotate
unitup journal vacuum --size 500M --yes
unitup journal vacuum --time 14d --dry-run

unitup remove worker
unitup remove @backend --force

Programmatic API

unitup exports full ESM and CommonJS interfaces with TypeScript declarations (index.d.ts).

import {
  createService,
  startService,
  stopService,
  restartService,
  getServiceStatus,
  listServices,
  isSystemdAvailable
} from "unitup";

import type {
  CreateServiceOptions,
  ServiceStatus
} from "unitup";

if (await isSystemdAvailable()) {
  // Add service with explicit command + args
  await createService({
    name: "worker",
    command: "/usr/bin/python3",
    args: ["/home/user/apps/worker.py"],
    cwd: "/home/user/apps",
    restart: "on-failure",
    start: true
  });

  const status: ServiceStatus = await getServiceStatus("worker");
  console.log(`PID: ${status.pid}, Status: ${status.status}`);
}

const {
  createService,
  startService,
  getServiceStatus
} = require("unitup");

await createService({
  name: "api",
  script: "./server.js",
  start: true
});

Declarative Stack Configuration (Roadmap Preview)

Define your entire application stack declaratively using unitup.yml or unitup.json:

apps:
  api:
    runtime: node
    script: ./server.js
    env:
      NODE_ENV: production
      PORT: 3000
    start: true

  worker:
    runtime: python
    script: ./worker.py
    env:
      APP_ENV: production

  native-service:
    runtime: native
    command: ./server

# Preview differences against active units
unitup diff

# Apply unitup.yml configuration
unitup apply

# Perform batch operations on group
unitup restart @default

*Note: Relative script, command, cwd, and env-file paths in unitup.yml are resolved relative to the configuration file.

Troubleshooting & User Lingering

loginctl enable-linger $USER