Observed arrival · 2026-11-04
Ballast: a Mac memory manager that groups by project
Ballast groups memory use by app, project, or Claude session, then lets users stop idle processes or park a project for later.
- For
- Mac developers juggling project servers and Claude sessions
- Worth noticing
- Rules begin in a log-only rehearsal mode; swap alerts fire when usage rises 512 MB in 15 minutes.
Field notes
The page describes a timeline that can be inspected minute by minute, including which processes were largest and which grew before a pressure event. Presets target forgotten development servers, idle Rails processes, empty Claude sessions, and Slack. Park stops a project's servers and containers; Start Again is described as restoring them with the same folder and environment. The page says shells, editors, and agents remain running, while apps with unsaved work can refuse to quit.
Observed signals
Read the marks
Editorial observations of this landing page, not a rating.
One card from the complete issue