A menu bar system monitor for macOS. CPU, memory, GPU, network, disk, battery and thermals at 0.046% CPU.
296
stars
134
commits
Swift
primary language
Sep 3, 2026
updated
README
AirStats
An ultra lightweight macOS system monitor.
AirStats is a system monitor for the Mac menu bar. It reads CPU, memory, GPU, network, disk, battery, temperature, process and host statistics from the kernel and shows them in three places: the menu bar itself, a panel that drops down when you click the status item, and a desktop widget you can leave on screen.
It is built to be genuinely light. A menu bar monitor runs all day, every day, so AirStats holds a few megabytes and a fraction of a percent of one core rather than the tens of megabytes its peers take. It has no Dock icon, and reads the system through Mach, IOKit, sysctl and CoreWLAN.
Requirements
- macOS 14 or later
- Apple silicon
Install
Download it from airstats.app, open the dmg and drag the app to Applications. It is signed and notarized, so it opens with no warning.
Or with Homebrew:
brew install --cask byrencheema/tap/airstats
AirStats updates itself with Sparkle. It asks airstats.app once a week whether a newer version exists, and installs one only when you say so. Both of those can be turned off in General settings.
Build from source
You need the Swift 6 toolchain that ships with Xcode 16.
Scripts/build.sh release
cp -R .build/arm64-apple-macosx/release/AirStats.app /Applications/
open /Applications/AirStats.app
Scripts/build.sh wraps the SwiftPM binary in a .app bundle, copies Sparkle.framework
into Contents/Frameworks, and signs it ad hoc. macOS grants a status item only to a
signed bundle with LSUIElement set. Run the script with no argument for a debug build.
An ad-hoc signature is enough to run a build you made yourself, and not enough to travel:
macOS refuses an ad-hoc bundle that arrived over the internet. Scripts/release.sh is what
produces the download above, signing with a Developer ID certificate and stapling Apple's
notarization ticket to the .dmg.
Source layout
| Path | What lives there |
|---|---|
Sources/AirStatKit | Collectors, the sampling engine, settings, formatting. No UI. |
Sources/AirStatUI | Menu bar drawing, panel, desktop widget, settings window, charts, design system. |
Sources/AirStats | The executable, app delegate, and the probe and render commands. |
Tests/AirStatKitTests | Contract tests for the collectors, plus settings and formatting. |
Scripts/build.sh | Builds the binary and assembles the .app. |
Scripts/release.sh | Signs, notarizes and packages the .dmg that ships. |
Scripts/appcast.py | Writes a release into the appcast Sparkle reads. |
Scripts/benchmark.py | Samples the menu bar monitors on your Mac over one shared window. |
AirStatKit never imports SwiftUI or AppKit, which is what lets the tests and the probe
run in a windowless process.
Contributing
CONTRIBUTING.md has the checks to run before a pull request and the house rules.
License
MIT. See LICENSE.
Contributors
134 commits
See what people are saying
Similar repos
Languages
Swift
97.1%
Python
1.8%
Shell
1.1%
A menu bar system monitor for macOS. CPU, memory, GPU, network, disk, battery and thermals at 0.046% CPU.
296
stars
134
commits
Swift
primary language
Sep 3, 2026
updated
README
AirStats
An ultra lightweight macOS system monitor.
AirStats is a system monitor for the Mac menu bar. It reads CPU, memory, GPU, network, disk, battery, temperature, process and host statistics from the kernel and shows them in three places: the menu bar itself, a panel that drops down when you click the status item, and a desktop widget you can leave on screen.
It is built to be genuinely light. A menu bar monitor runs all day, every day, so AirStats holds a few megabytes and a fraction of a percent of one core rather than the tens of megabytes its peers take. It has no Dock icon, and reads the system through Mach, IOKit, sysctl and CoreWLAN.
Requirements
- macOS 14 or later
- Apple silicon
Install
Download it from airstats.app, open the dmg and drag the app to Applications. It is signed and notarized, so it opens with no warning.
Or with Homebrew:
brew install --cask byrencheema/tap/airstats
AirStats updates itself with Sparkle. It asks airstats.app once a week whether a newer version exists, and installs one only when you say so. Both of those can be turned off in General settings.
Build from source
You need the Swift 6 toolchain that ships with Xcode 16.
Scripts/build.sh release
cp -R .build/arm64-apple-macosx/release/AirStats.app /Applications/
open /Applications/AirStats.app
Scripts/build.sh wraps the SwiftPM binary in a .app bundle, copies Sparkle.framework
into Contents/Frameworks, and signs it ad hoc. macOS grants a status item only to a
signed bundle with LSUIElement set. Run the script with no argument for a debug build.
An ad-hoc signature is enough to run a build you made yourself, and not enough to travel:
macOS refuses an ad-hoc bundle that arrived over the internet. Scripts/release.sh is what
produces the download above, signing with a Developer ID certificate and stapling Apple's
notarization ticket to the .dmg.
Source layout
| Path | What lives there |
|---|---|
Sources/AirStatKit | Collectors, the sampling engine, settings, formatting. No UI. |
Sources/AirStatUI | Menu bar drawing, panel, desktop widget, settings window, charts, design system. |
Sources/AirStats | The executable, app delegate, and the probe and render commands. |
Tests/AirStatKitTests | Contract tests for the collectors, plus settings and formatting. |
Scripts/build.sh | Builds the binary and assembles the .app. |
Scripts/release.sh | Signs, notarizes and packages the .dmg that ships. |
Scripts/appcast.py | Writes a release into the appcast Sparkle reads. |
Scripts/benchmark.py | Samples the menu bar monitors on your Mac over one shared window. |
AirStatKit never imports SwiftUI or AppKit, which is what lets the tests and the probe
run in a windowless process.
Contributing
CONTRIBUTING.md has the checks to run before a pull request and the house rules.
License
MIT. See LICENSE.
See what people are saying
Similar repos
Contributors
134 commits
Languages
Swift
97.1%
Python
1.8%
Shell
1.1%