Plummer says a 107-page specification and Claude Code helped him build separate native apps around a shared C++ metrics core.
By RuntimeWire Staff · Published
Primary source: TMOG
Why it matters #
TMOG is a credible test of agentic coding under expert direction: a veteran systems engineer used a 107-page specification to turn Claude Code into implementation speed across three native applications.
Dave Plummer (@davepl1968), the former Microsoft engineer who created the original Windows Task Manager, completed the three-platform rollout of TMOG this week, bringing his new system monitor to macOS, Windows and Linux.
Plummer released the macOS beta on July 31st, then announced Windows and Linux availability on August 23rd. TMOG, short for Task Manager OG, is currently labeled Beta2, with version 0.1.1 downloads offered for macOS 13 and later, Windows 11 and Linux desktops running X11 or Wayland.
It is a return to unusually familiar ground. Plummer wrote the first Windows Task Manager at home while working at Microsoft, then brought the project inside after Windows NT architect Dave Cutler approved its inclusion. It shipped publicly with Windows NT 4.0 in 1996. A later Microsoft engineering post still referred to a Task Manager interface component as "Dave's frame class," a remnant of Plummer's authorship embedded in the utility itself.
Plummer arrived at Microsoft through an internship in the MS-DOS group and graduated from the University of Regina in 1994 with a computer science degree and high honors, according to the university's computer science alumni program. His Microsoft work later included Windows ZIP-folder support and the Windows NT port of Space Cadet Pinball. TMOG gives him another pass at the utility that became his most durable piece of software, this time without the constraints of shipping inside an operating system.
Three native apps, one systems console
TMOG combines a dashboard for CPU, GPU, memory, storage, networking, energy, thermals and active processes with deeper views for logical processors, NUMA topology, process trees, services and hardware details. Its memory panel separates application, wired, compressed, cached, committed, available and swap figures rather than collapsing them into a single usage number.
Plummer chose separate native interfaces for each operating system: Swift and AppKit on macOS, Win32 controls on Windows, and C++ with Qt 6 on Linux. A shared C++ core aligns metric definitions, actions, models and serialization across the three builds. That structure requires more platform-specific work than wrapping a web interface, while preserving the controls and system integrations users expect on each desktop.
The distinction matters for a task manager. TMOG needs direct access to operating-system metrics and actions while remaining responsive under the load it is measuring. Plummer advertises meters that update at 60 frames per second, logical-core graphs that expose the shape of a workload, and native process and service controls.
TMOG remains an early beta. The downloads are not digitally signed, so macOS, Windows and Linux users may have to approve the application manually before its first launch. That hurdle is material for a utility asking for access to process and hardware information, even when the operating-system warning is an expected consequence of unsigned distribution.
The 107-page prompt
The development story turns TMOG into a sharper example of AI-assisted engineering than the usual one-prompt demo. Plummer began with a detailed specification rather than asking a model to improvise a product.
Tom's Hardware reported that Plummer wrote a 107-page specification and used Anthropic's Claude Code while spending long stretches at the hospital during his son's appendectomy and subsequent treatment. Plummer said the first working versions were generated in roughly four and a half hours, followed by the less photogenic work of testing and refinement.
Claude Code can inspect repositories, edit files and run commands and tests. TMOG shows what those capabilities look like in the hands of a programmer who already knows the product category, the operating-system interfaces and the edge cases. The specification captured decades of domain judgment before the coding agent began producing implementation.
The result also complicates the loose use of "vibe coding." A 107-page systems specification, three native user interfaces and a shared metrics model describe a tightly directed engineering process. Claude Code supplied speed. Plummer supplied the architecture, requirements and ability to recognize when the generated work was wrong.
A free category with demanding users
TMOG enters a market where every operating system already includes a free monitor, and power users have mature alternatives. Microsoft's Process Explorer provides deep Windows-specific inspection of handles, DLLs and process relationships. The open-source macOS monitor Stats covers CPU, GPU, memory, disks, networking, batteries and sensors.
Plummer's bet is cross-platform consistency without giving up native behavior. TMOG offers the same visual grammar and metric model across three operating systems, while retaining AppKit, Win32 and Qt interfaces underneath. That could appeal to developers and technical operators moving among Macs, Windows workstations and Linux desktops who currently assemble a different monitoring toolkit on each machine.
TMOG's public beta is free. Its privacy and licensing notice already documents local Pro license activation on macOS and Windows, as well as an optional iPhone remote view that sends Mac metrics directly over the local network. The licensing infrastructure gives Plummer a path to sell added functionality while keeping a free edition in distribution.
For Plummer, TMOG is both a product launch and a controlled test of how much implementation an experienced engineer can hand to a coding agent. He chose the category where his own judgment is hardest to counterfeit. Thirty years after Task Manager first shipped, he is using AI to build it again, with considerably more specification and three times as many operating systems.