Witr: Process Monitor and System Resource Tool

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The Problem: What Is Your CPU Actually Running? #

Your computer slows down, fans spin up, battery drains fast — but you do not know why:

Which process is consuming 90% CPU?
What app is leaking memory?
Which service is hammering the disk?
What is using all the network bandwidth?

Default system monitors are too basic. top and Task Manager show numbers but lack context.

What Is Witr? #

Witr is a modern process monitor and system resource tool that shows real-time CPU, memory, disk, and network usage in an intuitive, visual interface. It is a lightweight alternative to htop, top, and glances.

Key Features #

1. Real-Time Process Monitoring #

CPU usage — Per-process and total system load
Memory consumption — RSS, VSS, swap usage
Disk I/O — Read/write rates per process
Network traffic — Send/receive rates
Process tree — Parent-child relationships

2. Resource Usage Alerts #

CPU threshold — Alert when any process exceeds X%
Memory limit — Warn when RAM usage is high
Disk space — Notify when partitions fill up
Network spike — Detect unusual traffic patterns
Custom rules — Define your own alert conditions

3. Historical Data #

Trend graphs — CPU and memory over time
Peak detection — Find when resources spiked
Baseline analysis — Understand normal usage patterns
Export data — CSV or JSON for external analysis
Log integration — Correlate with system logs

4. Intuitive Interface #

Color coding — Green/yellow/red for usage levels
Sortable columns — Click to sort by any metric
Search and filter — Find processes by name or PID
Keyboard shortcuts — Navigate without mouse
Minimal CPU overhead — Less than 1% CPU usage

How to Use Witr #

Installation #

# macOS
brew install witr

# Linux (Debian/Ubuntu)
sudo apt install witr

# Linux (Fedora)
sudo dnf install witr

# From source
git clone https://github.com/witr/witr.git
cd witr && cargo install --path .

Basic Usage #

# Start Witr
witr

# Show only CPU and memory
witr --fields cpu,memory

# Monitor specific process
witr --filter python

# Export to CSV
witr --export output.csv --duration 60

# Set alert threshold
witr --alert-cpu 80 --alert-memory 90

Keyboard Shortcuts #

Key	Action
`q`	Quit
`Space`	Pause/resume
`k`	Kill selected process
`f`	Filter processes
`s`	Sort by column
`t`	Toggle tree view
`h`	Show help

Comparison with Alternatives #

Feature	Witr	htop	top	Glances
CPU Usage	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Memory	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Disk I/O	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Network	Yes	No	No	Yes
Process Tree	Yes	Yes	No	No
Alerts	Built-in	No	No	Limited
History	Yes	No	No	Yes
Export	CSV/JSON	No	No	CSV
Web UI	No	No	No	Yes
CPU Overhead	<1%	<1%	<1%	2-3%

Use Cases #

Developers #

Find runaway test processes
Monitor build resource usage
Debug memory leaks
Optimize application performance

System Administrators #

Monitor server health
Detect resource hogs
Plan capacity upgrades
Troubleshoot performance issues

DevOps Engineers #

Monitor container resource usage
Set up alerting rules
Analyze baseline performance
Generate resource reports

Power Users #

Understand system behavior
Optimize battery life
Find background processes
Manage startup items

Advanced Features #

Custom Metrics #

Add your own metrics:

{
  "metrics": [
    {
      "name": "gpu_usage",
      "command": "nvidia-smi --query-gpu=utilization.gpu --format=csv,noheader",
      "interval": 5
    }
  ]
}

Integration #

Prometheus — Export metrics for monitoring
Grafana — Visualize in dashboards
Slack — Send alerts to channels
PagerDuty — Trigger incident response
Webhooks — Custom notification endpoints

Plugin System #

Write plugins in any language:

# witr_plugin.py
import psutil

def get_custom_metric():
    return {
        "name": "battery_level",
        "value": psutil.sensors_battery().percent
    }

Performance #

Witr is designed for minimal overhead:

Rust implementation — Zero-cost abstractions
Async I/O — Non-blocking data collection
Efficient rendering — Only redraw changed cells
Low memory — Under 10MB RAM usage
Fast startup — Sub-second initialization

Platform Support #

Platform	Status	Notes
Linux	Full	All features supported
macOS	Full	All features supported
Windows	Partial	No process tree
FreeBSD	Beta	Community maintained

Conclusion #

Witr is the modern process monitor for developers and system administrators.

Real-time CPU, memory, disk, and network monitoring
Built-in alerting and historical data
Intuitive interface with minimal overhead
Extensible with custom metrics and plugins
Cross-platform support

If top and htop feel too basic, upgrade to Witr.

GitHub: github.com/witr/witr
License: MIT | Stars: 3K+ | Language: Rust