📝 Written ● Beginner Updated 2026-06-16

Forward & monitor local ports

"Is the dev server up? What port was it on again?" When you're running an API on 3000, a frontend on 5173, and a database on 5432, that question gets old fast. The Ports tab answers it at a glance: a live list of local ports, which ones are actually listening, what's running on them, and a one-click button to open any of them in your browser.

Open it from the bottom panel as Ports (the power-plug icon). For how it relates to the Terminal and the other tabs, see the bottom panel overview.

What you'll learn

How to read a port row — status, owner, and label
Opening a running server in your browser in one click
Adding a port by hand to keep an eye on it
What the auto-detection does for you

Step 1: Read the list

Three columns plus actions

The list has a header row — Port, Status, Process / Label — and one row per tracked port:

Port: the number, in monospace.
Status: a green dot + "Active" when something is listening on it, or a grey dot + "Inactive" when nothing is. This is the at-a-glance "is my server up?" answer.
Process / Label: the owning process name if it can be detected, otherwise your own label, otherwise "devcontainer" for a forwarded container port, otherwise a dash.

On the right of each row are two buttons: a globe and an ✕ (covered next). If you've never tracked a port, you'll see an empty state instead — an antenna icon, "No ports forwarded", and an Add Port button to get started.

Step 2: Open a server in your browser

The globe button

Click the globe icon on any row and LingCode opens http://localhost:<port> in your default browser. Hovering shows the exact URL it'll open, so there's no doubt about where you're going. This is the everyday move: start your dev server, watch the row flip to green Active, click the globe, and you're looking at your app — no typing localhost: anything.

Step 3: Add a port to watch

The + button

Click the + in the tab's toolbar (it turns into an ✕ to cancel) and an add row appears, already focused. Type a port number (the field is numeric — the Add button stays disabled until it's a valid integer) and an optional Label to remember what it's for ("API", "Storybook"). Press Enter or click Add. The port joins the list and gets a live status dot like the rest.

Adding a port is for things you want to keep an eye on even before they're up — pin 3000 with the label "API" and you'll see the dot turn green the moment your server boots, instead of polling it yourself. To stop tracking a port, click the ✕ on its row.

Active/Inactive is detected, not assumed. The tab polls for listening ports while it's open, so the status dots reflect reality — a port shows Active only when something is genuinely bound to it. If a server crashes, its dot goes grey on its own. You don't have to refresh anything.

Step 4: Let auto-detection do the work

Forwarded and listening ports show up on their own

You don't have to add every port by hand. While the tab is open it watches for listening ports and surfaces them, and ports forwarded from a devcontainer appear labeled "devcontainer". The manual Add flow is there for the ports you care about ahead of time or that you want a friendly label on; everything else tends to show up by itself.