Glances
Cross-platform system monitoring tool with TUI, Web UI, and APIs
Glances is an open-source, cross-platform system monitoring tool designed as an alternative to tools like top/htop. It provides real-time insights into system resources and processes, and supports local or remote monitoring via terminal, web interface, and APIs.
Key Features
- Terminal-based dashboard showing CPU, memory, load, processes, disk I/O, network, filesystem, uptime, and system info
- Built-in web UI for monitoring from a browser on any device
- Client/server modes for remote monitoring, including discovery of available Glances servers
- RESTful JSON API and XML-RPC server for integrations and automation
- Pluggable architecture with plugins for sensors and hardware metrics (e.g., temperatures and fan speeds)
- Container monitoring support (notably Docker and Podman)
- Export metrics to external systems or files, including CSV and JSON outputs
Use Cases
- Monitoring a single server or workstation interactively from the terminal
- Remote monitoring of multiple machines via web UI or API integrations
- Exporting system metrics to external databases or monitoring pipelines
Limitations and Considerations
- Some functionality (web UI, specific plugins, exports) requires optional dependencies beyond the minimal installation
Glances fits well when you want a lightweight, interactive overview of system health while also enabling programmatic access and metric exports for broader observability workflows. Its cross-platform support makes it practical for mixed OS environments.
Categories:
Tags:
Tech Stack:
FastAPI
Docker
Python
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