sloptop/PLAN.md

TUI Resource Monitor Plan

Language Choice: Rust

Why Rust for this:

• Produces a single static-ish native binary easily (great for self-contained executables).
• Strong ecosystem for TUIs (ratatui, crossterm) and system stats (sysinfo).
• Good performance and low runtime overhead for frequent refresh loops.

Plan

1. Define scope and MVP metrics

• CPU usage (total + per core), memory, swap, disk usage, network throughput, process count, uptime.
• Target Linux first (then add macOS/Windows support if needed).

2. Bootstrap project structure

• Create a Rust CLI app with modules for collectors, ui, state, and config.
• Add dependencies: ratatui, crossterm, sysinfo, anyhow, clap, serde (optional config).

3. Implement data collection layer

• Build a polling engine (e.g., 500ms–1s interval) that samples resource metrics.
• Normalize all values into a shared state model for UI rendering.
• Add delta-based metrics (network/disk rates) from successive samples.

4. Build TUI layout and rendering

• Header: host info, uptime, refresh rate.
• Main panes: CPU, memory/swap, disk, network.
• Footer/help bar with keybindings.
• Add responsive layout for small terminal sizes.

5. Add interaction model

• Keybindings: quit, pause/resume, change refresh interval, toggle detailed view.
• Optional sorting/filtering for top processes view.

6. Packaging and self-contained build

• Configure release profile (lto, panic=abort, strip) for small fast binary.
• Document build command for optimized executable.
• Optional: static linking strategy for fully portable Linux binary.

7. Quality gates

• Unit tests for metric calculations and rate/delta logic.
• Smoke test for startup/render loop.
• Run clippy and fmt checks.

8. Delivery

• Provide binary + README with usage, keybindings, and supported platforms.
• Include known limitations and next-step roadmap (alerts, historical sparklines, per-process drilldown).