Home
Softono
MacNTop

MacNTop

Open source MIT Swift
GitHub
12
Stars
1
Forks
0
Issues
0
Watchers
3 months
Last Commit
System Monitoring

About MacNTop

📊 macOS menu bar system monitor with retro CRT aesthetics

Platforms

Web Self-hosted macOS iOS

Languages

Swift

Links

Source Code
c
Published by
corvidlabs
Visit View Profile

README.md

View on GitHub

MacNTop

A macOS menu bar system monitor with retro CRT terminal aesthetics.

Swift 6.0+ macOS 14+ License: MIT

MacNTop Menu MacNTop Window
Menu Bar Popover Floating Window

Features

Live Monitoring

  • CPU Usage - Per-core usage with sparkline graphs
  • Memory - Active, wired, compressed breakdown with segmented bar
  • Network - Upload/download speeds with real-time sparklines
  • Disk - Volume usage and I/O speeds
  • Processes - Top 10 by CPU or memory usage

Retro CRT Aesthetics

  • Phosphor glow effects on text
  • Scanline overlay
  • Vignette darkening at edges
  • Multiple color themes

Themes

  • Retro Green - Classic green phosphor CRT
  • Amber CRT - Warm amber terminal
  • Blue Ice - Cool blue tones
  • Matrix - Bright green on black
  • Dracula - Purple/pink dark theme
  • Light - Light mode for daytime

Installation

Requirements

  • macOS 14.0 (Sonoma) or later
  • Swift 6.0+ / Xcode 16+ (for building)

Build from Source

git clone https://github.com/CorvidLabs/MacNTop.git
cd MacNTop
swift build -c release

The built app will be at .build/release/MacNTop.

Run

swift run

Or after building:

.build/release/MacNTop

Usage

Menu Bar

  • Left-click - Toggle the dashboard popover
  • Right-click - Open context menu

Context Menu Options

  • Open in Window - Detach dashboard to a floating window
  • Theme - Select from 6 color themes
  • About MacNTop - Version info
  • Quit MacNTop - Exit the app

Window Mode

The dashboard can be opened in a standalone floating window that stays on top:

  • Right-click → "Open in Window"
  • Window persists across spaces
  • Receives live updates like the popover
  • Right-click → "Close Window" to return to popover-only mode

Dashboard

  • CPU/MEM toggle in process list - Click to sort by CPU or Memory
  • Scroll to see all sections

Keyboard Shortcuts

  • ⌘W - Toggle window mode (from context menu)
  • ⌘Q - Quit (from context menu)

Architecture

MacNTop/
├── Sources/MacNTop/
│   ├── App/
│   │   ├── AppDelegate.swift          # Entry point
│   │   └── Application+State.swift    # AppState theme management
│   ├── MenuBar/
│   │   ├── StatusBarController.swift  # NSStatusItem + popover + window
│   │   └── StatusBarIconRenderer.swift
│   ├── Models/                        # Sendable data models
│   ├── Services/                      # Actor-based monitors
│   ├── Core/
│   │   └── MetricsCoordinator.swift   # Orchestrates collection
│   ├── Views/
│   │   ├── DashboardWindow.swift      # Standalone floating window
│   │   ├── DashboardView.swift        # Main dashboard layout
│   │   └── ...                        # Component views
│   └── Utilities/
│       └── ByteFormatter.swift
├── Tests/MacNTopTests/                # Unit tests
└── Package.swift

Key Technologies

  • Swift Concurrency - Actors for thread-safe monitoring
  • AppKit - Native macOS UI
  • AppState - State management and persistence
  • IOKit - Low-level system metrics

System APIs Used

Metric API
CPU host_processor_info()
Memory host_statistics64(HOST_VM_INFO64)
Network getifaddrs() with if_data
Disk statfs(), IOKit IOBlockStorageDriver
Processes proc_listallpids(), proc_pidinfo()

Dependencies

  • AppState - Thread-safe state management

Configuration

Theme selection is persisted automatically via UserDefaults.

Development

Code Style

This project follows CorvidLabs Swift Conventions:

  • Explicit access control on all declarations
  • K&R brace style
  • No force unwrapping
  • async/await for concurrency
  • Sendable conformance for cross-boundary types

Building Documentation

swift package generate-documentation

Running Tests

swift test

Privacy

MacNTop runs entirely locally. No data is collected or transmitted.

Known Limitations

  • Requires distribution outside App Store (uses restricted APIs)
  • Disk I/O monitoring requires IOKit access
  • Process monitoring limited to current user's processes

Contributing

  1. Fork the repository
  2. Create a feature branch
  3. Follow CorvidLabs Swift conventions
  4. Submit a pull request

License

MIT License - see LICENSE for details.

Credits

Built by CorvidLabs

Inspired by: