Fleet Console
Fleet Console relates resource use to processes, service ownership, leases, health checks and operator messages. Use those relationships to understand why background work exists before taking a maintenance action. Start with Quick View for an observation, then follow the process or managed service that owns the work.
Start with an observation
Find what is keeping your Mac busy is a read-only first task. You will open Quick View, follow a resource into a timed chart, and select a process. You do not need to stop anything to learn which work is consuming resources.
Fleet Console requires macOS 14 or later. This guide assumes you already have a supported copy installed. Local monitoring and service control are free; linked-computer access is separate from local use. The maintained project documentation describes the application and its source license.
Monitoring is not control
A process visible in the dashboard is not necessarily a service the controller may manage. Work launched through fleetctl has a recorded owner, purpose and lease. A claimed process has a record but remains observation-only. An unmanaged process was started outside that supervision. An owner label records attribution; it is not a new grant of operator permission.
The controller's pause, resume, stop and restart controls apply to controller-launched services. A command typed into a terminal does not become supervised merely because the terminal appears inside Fleet Console.
Maintain managed work deliberately
Check ownership and lease
Distinguish launched, claimed and unmanaged work, then review the lease. A process name alone does not establish why it is running or who may control it.
Inspect before stopping
Read service logs and events and check health separately from running state. Use pause, resume, restart or stop only for the intended controller-launched service. Do not stop unrelated work as a diagnostic shortcut.
Keep the operator in the loop
Ask an operator and collect the reply when a decision is missing. An operator message records communication; it is not automatic permission for an agent to change another service.
Interpret the evidence
A running process, a listening port and a passing health check are independent facts. No configured check means Running (unverified), not healthy. An unavailable temperature, fan or battery reading is not zero; support depends on the hardware. Old observations do not establish present behavior.
After the first inspection, use fleetctl reference to understand an existing service record. If observations disappear, preserve the process and collect diagnostics before attempting any repair.