isd – interactive systemd

isd – a better way to work with systemd units

Simplify systemd management with isd! isd is a TUI offering fuzzy search for units, auto-refreshing previews, smart sudo handling, and a fully customizable interface for power-users and newcomers alike.

isd is a keyboard-focused, highly customizable TUI with the following features:

• Quickly switch between system and user units
• Fuzzy search units
• Auto refresh previews
• Quickly open outputs in a pager or editor
• Auto sudo prefixing if required
• Auto rescale depending on terminal window size (fluid design)
• Extensive command palette with many keyboard shortcuts
• Fully configurable keybindings
• Optional input state caching for common inputs
• Theme support
• YAML configuration file with auto-complete

Demo

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/a22868c0-fc01-4973-86ea-410b80b188a8

Click here for a higher quality recording.

Documentation

The documentation is live at:

• https://kainctl.github.io/isd/

Installation

The tool can be installed via uv, nix, and as an AppImage. Refer to the official installation documentation for more details.

Road map

A collection of some unordered ideas that could improve isd:

• Add icon for project and application menu
• Support old systemd version
• Option to view the security rating of units
• Improve highlighting of systemd units (tree-sitter grammar)
• Write a custom, more secure $EDITOR integration (more secure sytemctl edit)
• Allow customization of preview windows
• Improve journal_pager integration
• Add custom sort options
• Faster fuzzy search
• Improve default themes

Acknowledgments

Big thanks to the developers of:

• systemd for creating the most widely used service manager for Linux
• NixOS for piquing my interest in systemd and service managers
• sysz for providing a starting point and a desire to build a more complex systemctl TUI
• textual for making it a breeze to create TUIs in Python
• mkdocs-material for building a solid and simple to use static site generator for the documentation
• asciinema for developing an easy to use and self-hostable terminal recorder and player
• vhs for creating a scriptable terminal program
• posting for showing me how to use textual

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