silitop

A CLI performance monitor for Apple Silicon Macs, inspired by asitop.

Shows per-core CPU utilization, GPU usage, fan speed, network/disk I/O, power consumption, memory, and die temperatures in a single dashboard.

Features

• Per-core CPU bars with usage % and frequency for every core
• Automatic core tier detection: Super/Performance (M5), Efficiency/Performance (M1-M4)
• GPU utilization bar with frequency and die temperature
• Fan speed RPM and percentage bars (shown in CPU box blank space on asymmetric-core chips)
• ANE (Apple Neural Engine) usage
• Network throughput with in/out sparklines
• Disk I/O throughput with read/write sparklines
• Memory usage with swap status
• Power consumption: per-subsystem watts, averages, peaks, sparkline history
• Die temperatures: 14 thermal zones (CPU + GPU), SSD, battery
• Thermal pressure indicator (Nominal/Heavy/Trapping/Sleeping)
• Color-coded temperatures (cyan < 50C, yellow 50-70C, red > 70C)
• Zero Python dependencies (standard library only)
• Responsive to terminal size

Requirements

• macOS on Apple Silicon (M1, M2, M3, M4, M5, or later)
• Python 3.8+
• Swift compiler (xcode-select --install if needed)
• sudo (required for powermetrics)

Installation

git clone https://github.com/andrewleenyk/silitop.git
cd silitop
bash install.sh

The install script compiles the Swift helpers and copies all binaries to /usr/local/bin/.

Usage

sudo silitop

Options

Flag	Default	Description
--interval N	1	Sampling interval in seconds
--color N	2 (green)	Color scheme (0=white, 1=red, 2=green, 3=yellow, 4=blue, 5=magenta, 6=cyan)
--avg N	30	Power averaging window in seconds
--test-temps	-	Print raw temperature sensor readings and exit

Press q or Esc to quit.

How it works

• CPU/GPU/Power data: reads Apple's powermetrics tool (plist output), same source as asitop
• Temperatures: compiled Swift helper reads IOHIDEventSystemClient thermal sensors (no SMC hacks)
• Fan speed: compiled Swift helper reads AppleSMC via IOKit for fan RPM
• Network/Disk: powermetrics network and disk samplers (same subprocess, zero extra cost)
• Memory: parses vm_stat and sysctl (no psutil dependency)

Architecture

silitop (Python, curses UI)
  |
  |-- powermetrics subprocess (cpu_power, gpu_power, thermal, network, disk)
  |     writes plist to /tmp/silitop_pm*
  |
  |-- silitop-temps (compiled Swift binary)
  |     reads IOHIDEventSystemClient temperature sensors
  |     outputs sensor_name|temperature pairs
  |
  |-- silitop-fans (compiled Swift binary)
        reads AppleSMC fan RPM via IOKit
        outputs FAN0|rpm|max_rpm pairs

Differences from asitop

Feature	asitop	silitop
Per-core CPU bars	Optional (--show_cores)	Always shown
Temperatures	No	Yes (14 die zones + SSD + battery)
GPU die temp	No	Yes
Fan speed	No	Yes (RPM + % bar)
Dependencies	psutil, dashing, blessed	None (stdlib only)
Core tier labels	E-CPU/P-CPU only	Auto-detects (Super/Performance on M5)
UI framework	blessed + dashing	Pure curses

Contributing

Contributions welcome. Some areas that could use help:

• Per-core temperature mapping: the 14 die zone sensors don't map 1:1 to cores. If you can figure out the exact mapping for your chip, open an issue.
• M1/M2/M3/M4 testing: built and tested on M5 Pro, needs validation on older chips.
• Better TDP estimates: power gauge percentages depend on max power estimates per SoC variant.
• Bandwidth counters: powermetrics exposes memory bandwidth data that could be displayed.

License

MIT