Feature Request: Compact CPU and RAM indicators in the top panel

[deluca0206]

Summary

Add an opt-in System Monitor module that shows compact CPU and RAM usage in the GNOME top panel, similar to Vitals-style text:

CPU 23% RAM 8.1G

Clicking the indicator opens a details menu (overall CPU %, used/total RAM, and swap when available). GPU usage and temperatures are out of scope for the first version; they should be follow-up work only if they can be read from sysfs without spawning processes.

The module must follow Aurora’s module contract: Shell-free manifest, factory in registry.ts, GSettings keys, reversible enable()/disable(), and rows in the module reference / README.

Motivation

Vanilla GNOME has no always-visible CPU/RAM readout. Users currently stack a second extension (Vitals, system-monitor) next to Aurora. Aurora already owns panel status items (lock-key-indicators, weather clock, tray icons). A first-party, opt-in indicator would cover that everyday gap without another extension.

Proposed UX

• Placement: Main.panel.addToStatusArea(..., 'right'), same family as lock-key-indicators.
• Compact labels, not emoji. No fake “loading…” ASCII meters; use St.Label / BarLevel if a meter is needed in the menu.
• Polling: GLib.timeout_add_seconds, default 2s, user-configurable (e.g. 1–10). Remove the source in disable().
• Missing data: hide that metric; do not invent values.

Data sources (v1, no subprocess)

Metric	Source	Notes
CPU %	/proc/stat	Delta of cpu aggregate between polls
RAM	/proc/meminfo	Prefer MemAvailable; show used and total

Read with Gio.File + cancellable, not cat/free/top. Parse in Shell-free TypeScript so Node unit tests can cover it.

Prefs (suggested)

• Master switch module-system-monitor — off
• Show CPU / show RAM (switches)
• Refresh interval (spin)
• RAM format: 8.1G vs 45% (select)

Alternatives considered

• Rely on Vitals / system-monitor — works, but fights Aurora’s “one extension” goal and can clash on the panel.
• Ship GPU + temperature in v1 — NVIDIA often needs nvidia-smi; Aurora/EGO strongly discourage subprocesses in the Shell process. CPU and RAM can be read from /proc/stat and /proc/meminfo via Gio.File.
• Enable by default — docs say new modules are opt-in unless product explicitly wants them on.
• Graphs or icon-only — denser UI, more CSS/a11y work; compact text is enough for v1.

Follow-up (not this issue)

• GPU from sysfs only (/sys/class/drm/.../gpu_busy_percent, Intel equivalents). Hide if absent. No nvidia-smi.
• Temperature from /sys/class/hwmon / /sys/class/thermal. Hide if absent.

Implementation sketch

• src/panel/systemMonitor/ — systemMonitor.manifest.ts, parser, module, SCSS
• Catalog section dock-panel; register in moduleCatalog.ts + registry.ts
• Schema keys in data/schemas/org.gnome.shell.extensions.aurora-shell.gschema.xml
• Unit tests for /proc parsing; Shell test for panel actor + teardown
• Docs: docs/module-reference.md, README module list, .po after just i18n update

Acceptance

• Disabled by default; no panel widget until enabled
• With the module on: CPU …% and RAM … update on the interval
• Details menu opens on click
• Disable removes the button and the timeout
• just validate, unit tests, targeted Shell test, just shexli pass
• No subprocess, no GTop/lib dependency, no telemetry

EGO / Aurora constraints

• No work at import/construct time; poll only after enable()
• No GTK in Shell; no emoji icons
• Do not claim GPU/temp until those sources exist