Usage and Output Formats

This document describes how to configure procscope and the various output formats it provides.

Configuration & Flags

Flag	Short	Description	Default
--pid	-p	Attach to existing PID	—
--name	-n	Attach by process name	—
--out	-o	Evidence bundle directory	—
--jsonl		JSONL output file	—
--summary		Markdown summary file	—
--no-color		Disable ANSI colors	false
--quiet	-q	Suppress live timeline	false
--max-args		Max argv elements	64
--max-path		Max path string length	4096
--skip-checks		Skip privilege checks	false

Output Formats

Live Timeline

Compact, color-coded terminal output during investigation:

TIME         PID   COMM            EVENT              DETAILS
[+    0ms]   1234  suspicious      process.exec       /tmp/suspicious-binary
[+   12ms]   1234  suspicious      file.open          /etc/passwd [read]
[+   15ms]   1234  suspicious      net.connect        ipv4 → 93.184.216.34:443
[+   18ms] ! 1234  suspicious      priv.setuid        uid 1000 → 0
[+   20ms]   1235  sh              process.exec       /bin/sh
[+   25ms]   1235  sh              process.exit        exit_code=0
[+   30ms]   1234  suspicious      process.exit        exit_code=0

JSONL Event Stream

Machine-readable, one event per line:

procscope --jsonl events.jsonl -- ./command

Evidence Bundle

Structured directory for incident response:

case-001/
├── metadata.json       # Investigation metadata
├── events.jsonl        # Complete event stream
├── process-tree.txt    # Human-readable process tree
├── files.json          # File activity summary
├── network.json        # Network activity summary
├── notable.json        # Security-relevant events
└── summary.md          # Markdown executive summary

Markdown Summary

Team-ready report with overview, process tree, event breakdown, file/network activity tables, notable events, and honest limitations.