Portabella Companion
A small, free Mac helper that stops servers for Portabella, re-checking every target first, and installs the portabella command line tool. It comes in the free Portabella download; this page has it on its own.
Download
- Version
- Size
- SHA-256
- Requires
- macOS 26 or later (Apple silicon and Intel)
This build is signed with a Developer ID but is not yet notarized by Apple. macOS will warn that it can't check the app for malicious software; to open it anyway, Control-click the app and choose Open. This notice disappears once a notarized build is published.
Signed with a Developer ID and notarized by Apple.
Install
- Open the disk image and drag Portabella Companion to Applications.
- Open it once. It sets itself to start at login (you can switch that off in its window) and runs in the background with no Dock icon.
- Its window shows whether it is running. From there you can also install the command line tool (below).
To use the command line tool, click Install portabella in the Companion's window. It links portabella into ~/.local/bin without needing an administrator password.
Why a separate app?
Portabella runs in Apple's app sandbox, and the sandbox forbids ending other programs. The Companion isn't sandboxed, so it can. It's a separate app and does nothing until you install and open it.
What it can and can't do
| It does | Stop a server when asked, by the server's identity (never a bare process number), after re-checking it's still the same program, and then verify it stayed stopped. |
|---|---|
| It checks | That the request really comes from a genuine, signed Portabella program, using macOS's own code-signature checks, before reading anything. |
| It never | Stops system programs, root-owned programs, other users' programs, or itself. Opens no network connection or listening port. Sends nothing anywhere. |
Uninstall
Quit it from its window, switch off Start at login, and drag it to the Trash. The Portabella app keeps working as before.
Check your download
Compare the SHA-256 above with the result of this command in Terminal:
shasum -a 256 ~/Downloads/Portabella-Companion.dmg