A modern, powerful cross-platform terminal-based task monitor providing real-time monitoring and management of a computer's performance, active processes, and resource utilization. Perfect for Homelab and local LLM monitoring. Originally inspired by tools like top, htop and the Windows Task Manager, it provides performance monitoring at-a-glance for system resources (including CPU, GPU, Memory, Swap, Disk and Network) and process management functions.
- Perfect for HomeLab and Local LLM monitoring
- No sudo or administrator privilege required
- Real-Time System Monitoring: Live updates of CPU, GPU, memory, swap, disk I/O and Network I/O.
- High resolution charts in 24-bit colour.
- Switch layouts (
F8) to focus charts on specific system metrics. - Real-Time Process Monitoring: View Process, Pid, CPU%, Avg CPU%, Max CPU%, Threads, GPU%, Avg GPU%, Max GPU%, Memory, Avg Memory, Max Memory, Disk MB/s, Avg Disk MB/s, Max Disk MB/s and Command Path.
- Process list formatted similar to the original htop and top.
- Process CPU% defaults to Irix mode (individual core saturation) for *nix systems (
ito toggle on/off). - Process deep dive (
F5) to view live thread times and loaded libraries (system and user). - Module Analysis: Full dynamic and static library enumeration for selected process.
- Customise update interval (default 1500ms).
- Customise top number of processes to display (default unlimited).
- Customise number of process iteration loops.
- Freeze process list updates (
forz). - Windows Services: Show service names and startup parameters, not just generic
svchost.exeentries. - Multiple process selection (
xtoggle show checkboxes,spacebarfor selection,uto uncheck all selections) - Select and terminate multiple processes simultaneously (
F6). - Filter by process name, username, command path or PID (
F4). - Sort the process list by any visible column (
F3). - Quick sort by CPU%, GPU% or Memory (
p,gormrespectively). - Toggle process sorting between ascending (using the
akey) and descending (using thedkey). - Navigate scrollable lists using the ↓, ↑ arrow keys and
Pg UpandPg Downkeys. - Multiple Themes: Ships with dozens of popular, modern 24-bit colour themes.
- Modern terminal detection to support colour desaturation.
- Customise Configuration: Manage configuration settings using the (
F2) Setup function. Interactive UI for modifying and saving settings. - System profile: Display machine name, OS name and version, CPU name and clock speed, top resource consumers (Avg and Max) (using the
F9function).
Cross-Platform Native Performance
- Platform-specific optimizations using C APIs (Win32, Mach kernel).
- .net native build with small memory footprint.
- Zero third-party dependencies on libraries such as ncurses.
Note: taskmon does NOT require the .net SDK or runtime to be installed on any platform to run. The application is a native-code, self-contained executable on all platforms.
brew tap jchas2/taskmon
brew trust jchas2/taskmon
brew install taskmonTo update to the latest version:
brew update
brew upgrade taskmonTask Monitor does not require sudo permission on MacOS for system monitoring, however some system process detail won't be available unless run with sudo.
choco install taskmonTo update to the latest version:
choco upgrade taskmonAfter downloading:
- Extract the archive
- Run PowerShell or Command Prompt, then run
.\taskmon.exe
Task Monitor does not require elevated permission on Windows for system monitoring, however some system process detail won't be available unless run as Administrator.
Task Monitor is not yet available on Linux (coming soon).
Task Monitor supports the following commands on startup. Note these commands can also be configured using the F2 Setup function, and saved to configuration for next run.
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
taskmon |
Start Task Monitor with configuration defaults. |
taskmon --gpu-only |
Automatically monitor GPU resources on startup. |
taskmon --cpu-only |
Automatically monitor CPU resources on startup. |
taskmon --pid <pid> |
Automatically monitor the pid nnn on startup. |
taskmon --username <username> |
Automatically monitor all processes running under user username on startup. |
taskmon --process <processname> |
Automatically monitor all processes with matching processname on startup. |
taskmon --sort <column> |
Automatically sort by on startup. |
taskmon --sort-help |
Show the list of columns available for the --sort option. |
taskmon --delay <delay> |
Use in milliseconds between chart and process updates. |
taskmon --limit <limit> |
Limit the number of iteration loops and then stop. |
taskmon --nprocs <nprocs> |
Only display the top number of processes. Eg: taskmon --nprocs 10 |
taskmon --theme <theme> |
Load a theme from the available themes. Eg: taskmon --theme "Dracula Official" |
taskmon --theme-help |
Show the list of theme names available for the --theme option. |
taskmon --debug |
Signal a debug break on startup and wait for a debugger to attach. |
taskmon --version |
Print version information and exit. |
taskmon --help |
Show help and usage information. |
Task Monitor stores configuration and log files in the following system directories:
| Config | Description |
|---|---|
taskmon.ini |
Primary config file in .ini format. |
| Theme files | One config file per theme. |
| Layout files | One layout file per TUI layout. Controls size and types of charts on display. |
| Log files | One log file per session; logs are rotated > 2MB and routinely deleted. |
| Config | Path |
|---|---|
taskmon.ini |
~\.config\taskmon |
| Theme files | ~\.config\taskmon\themes |
| Layout files | ~\.config\taskmon\layouts |
| Log files | ~\Library\Logs\taskmon |
| Config | Path |
|---|---|
taskmon.ini |
~\AppData\Roaming\taskmon |
| Theme files | ~\AppData\Roaming\taskmon\themes |
| Layout files | ~\AppData\Roaming\taskmon\layouts |
| Log files | ~\AppData\Local\taskmon\Logs |
Theme files control the colour palette behaviour for colour desaturation, background opacity, and the colours applied to the TUI screen elements. There a number of default themes that are pre-loaded when Task Monitor starts. These themes are kept in .ini files and can be customised as required. Additionally, new theme files can be authored and copied to the theme files directory and will automatically be available next time Task Monitor starts.
Below is an example theme file:
[Dracula Official]
colour-mode=indexed
background=transparent
background-highlight=#3b5070
col-cmd-normal-user-space=#50fa7b
col-cmd-low-priority=#0000FF
col-cmd-high-cpu=#ff79c6
col-cmd-io-bound=#bd93f9
col-cmd-script=#e3b341
col-user-current-non-root=#f8f8f2
col-user-other-non-root=#f1fa8c
col-user-system=#ff79c6
col-user-root=#50fa7b
command-foreground=#bd93f9
command-background=#282a36
delta-highlight-colour=#ffb86c
error=#db61a2
foreground=#f8f8f2
foreground-highlight=#ffb86c
menubar-foreground=#f1fa8c
menubar-background=#282a36
range-high-background=#bd93f9
range-low-background=#f1fa8c
range-mid-background=#ffb86c
range-high-foreground=#000000
range-low-foreground=#000000
range-mid-foreground=#000000
header-background=#282a36
header-foreground=#f1fa8c
| Example Theme | Description |
|---|---|
[Dracula Official] |
Theme name, used to identify the theme. |
colour-mode=indexed |
Indexed means use the colour palette that supports colour desaturation on modern terminals. Truecolour prevents desaturation (by emitting ARGB) escape codes. Auto detects terminal support. |
background=transparent |
transaparent honours background colour opacity settings in the terminal. Otherwise specify a custom background colour to override the terminal default. |
background-highlight=#3b5070 |
Row selection background colour in a list. |
col-cmd-normal-user-space=#50fa7b |
Text colour for user-mode applications. |
col-cmd-low-priority=#0000FF |
Text colour for applications running at a low priority. |
col-cmd-high-cpu=#ff79c6 |
Text colour for a process running at high CPU%. |
col-cmd-io-bound=#bd93f9 |
Text colour for a process that is IO bound. |
col-cmd-script=#e3b341 |
Text colour for script/shell processes. (not supported yet) |
col-user-current-non-root=#f8f8f2 |
Username colour for current user if not running as root. |
col-user-other-non-root=#f1fa8c |
Username colour for other non-root users. |
col-user-system=#ff79c6 |
Text colour for system users. |
col-user-root=#50fa7b |
Text colour for root/admin users. |
command-foreground=#bd93f9 |
Function Key text colour. |
command-background=#282a36 |
Function key background colour. |
delta-highlight-colour=#ffb86c |
Flash colour when a metric updates in the process list. |
error=#db61a2 |
Text error colour. |
foreground=#f8f8f2 |
Text foreground colour. |
foreground-highlight=#ffb86c |
Row selection forground colour in a list. |
menubar-foreground=#f1fa8c |
Menubar text colour. |
menubar-background=#282a36 |
Menubar background colour. |
range-high-background=#bd93f9 |
Chart colour for high-range values. |
range-low-background=#f1fa8c |
Chart colour for low-range values. |
range-mid-background=#ffb86c |
Chart colour for mid-range values. |
range-high-foreground=#000000 |
Text colour for high-range values. |
range-low-foreground=#000000 |
Text colour for low-range values. |
range-mid-foreground=#000000 |
Text colour for mid-rage values. |
header-background=#282a36 |
Column header background colour in a list. |
header-foreground=#f1fa8c |
Column header foreground colour in a list. |
Note: colour-mode can be temporarily overriden for ALL theme files by setting the environment variable TASKMON_COLOUR_MODE to one of Indexed, Truecolour or Auto. Auto will support the theme setting if the terminal supports it.
Layout files control the number, sequence, rows and columns of the chart layouts on the main process screen. There a number of default layouts that are pre-loaded when Task Monitor starts. These layouts are kept in .ini files and can be customised as required. Additionally, new layout files can be authored and copied to the layout files directory and will automatically be available next time Task Monitor starts.
Below is an example Layout file:
[All Charts]
ratio=0.4
num-rows=2
num-cols=4
; Chart index
; 0=Cpu, 1=Gpu, 2=Disk, 3=NetworkSent, 4=Memory, 5=GpUMemory, 6=VirtualMemory, 7=NetworkRec
charts=0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7
| Example Layout | Description |
|---|---|
[All Charts] |
Layout name, used to identify the layout. |
ratio=0.4 |
Percentage of the screen Y-axis used to display chart content i.e. 40%. |
num-rows=2 |
Number of rows to split the charts across. |
num-cols=4 |
Number of columns to show each chart. |
; Chart index |
|
; 0=Cpu, 1=Gpu, 2=Disk, 3=NetworkSent, 4=Memory, 5=GpUMemory, 6=VirtualMemory, 7=NetworkRec |
Chart identifiers. |
charts=0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7 |
Array of chart identifiers to render across the rows and columns. |
This section covers everything you need to know to build, test, debug, and contribute to taskmon.
- .NET 10.0 SDK or newer.
- A compatible OS and Architecture:
- macOS: Apple Silicon (
osx-arm64). Intel Macs (osx-x64) are not supported. - Windows: x64 (
win-x64).
- macOS: Apple Silicon (
The repository includes cross-platform build scripts in the root directory that wrap the underlying .NET CLI commands and engineering scripts (eng/).
macOS (Bash):
./build.shWindows (PowerShell):
.\build.ps1By default, these scripts perform a clean build using the Debug configuration. Under the hood, they invoke eng/build.sh or eng/build.ps1.
You can pass custom arguments to the underlying scripts:
--clean: Clean the solution.--restore: Restore NuGet packages.--build: Build the solution.-c <config>: Specify configuration (e.g.,Release).
The project uses xUnit and Moq for testing. Test projects are located in the tests/ directory.
To run the full test suite:
macOS:
./test.shWindows:
.\test.ps1(This is equivalent to running ./eng/build.sh --test)
To build self-contained, Native AOT-compiled binaries for release:
macOS:
./publish.shWindows:
.\publish.ps1(This cleans, builds, and publishes using the Release configuration).
The output will be located in src/taskmon/bin/Release/net10.0/<runtime>/publish/.
To debug the CLI application, you can instruct it to pause on startup and wait for a debugger to attach. This is useful when issues or behaviours can't be reproduced in IDE consoles, or are specific to the terminal host (i.e. Powershell, conhost, Terminal, Ghostty, etc).
- Run the application with the
--debugflag:taskmon --debug
- The application will print its Process ID (PID) and wait:
Waiting for debugger attach to Pid 12345 - Attach your IDE's debugger to the specified PID.
- Once attached, the application will trigger a
Debugger.Break()and you can step through the code.
- Interop Layer: All native OS calls are isolated in
Task.Monitor.Interop.Mach(macOS) andTask.Monitor.Interop.Win32(Windows). If you need to add a new OS metric, define the P/Invoke signatures here. - System Abstraction: The
Task.Monitor.Systemproject consumes the Interop layer to provide cross-platform models (e.g.,SystemStatistics,ProcessInfo). - UI/CLI: The
taskmonproject contains the main application logic, rendering, and terminal UI layouts. - Themes/Layouts: Custom terminal themes and layouts are stored as embedded resources in
src/taskmon/Assets/. - Test Projects: There is a matching test project for every application project.
This project contains no dependencies on third party .net libraries. The early iterations of the system layer functionality used a number of libaries and the memory footprint for the tool quickly climbed to several hundred MB. Keeping the CPU and memory footprint as low as possible for a .net native application is a key design goal.
- The original
htophttps://github.com/htop-dev/htop - MacOS
tophttps://github.com/apple-open-source/macos/tree/master/top - The .net framework authors https://github.com/dotnet
- The WinForms authors: the TUI framework design in this project was modelled on the WinForms object and eventing models, to provide a clean, simple API for working with the underlying terminal.