Whosthere

Local Area Network discovery tool with an interactive Terminal User Interface (TUI) written in Go. Discover, explore, and understand your LAN in an intuitive way.

Whosthere performs unprivileged, concurrent scans using mDNS and SSDP scanners. Additionally, it sweeps the local subnet by attempting TCP/UDP connections to trigger ARP resolution, then reads the ARP cache to identify devices on your Local Area Network. This technique populates the ARP cache without requiring elevated privileges. All discovered devices are enhanced with OUI lookups to display manufacturers when available.

Whosthere provides a friendly, intuitive way to answer the question every network administrator asks: "Who's there on my network?"

Features

• Interactive TUI: Navigate and explore discovered devices intuitively.
• Fast & Concurrent: Leverages multiple discovery methods simultaneously.
• No Elevated Privileges Required: Runs entirely in user-space.
• Device Enrichment: Uses OUI lookup to show device manufacturers.
• Integrated Port Scanner: Optional service discovery on found hosts (only scan devices with permission!).
• Daemon Mode with HTTP API: Run in the background and integrate with other tools.
• Theming & Configuration: Personalize the look and behavior via YAML configuration.

Installation

Via Homebrew with brew:

brew install whosthere

On NixOS with nix:

nix profile install nixpkgs#whosthere

On Arch Linux with yay:

yay -S whosthere-bin

If your package manager is not listed you can always install with Go:

go install github.com/ramonvermeulen/whosthere@latest

Or build from source:

git clone https://github.com/ramonvermeulen/whosthere.git
cd whosthere
make build

Additionally, you can download pre-built binaries from the releases page.

Usage

Run the TUI for interactive discovery:

whosthere

Run as cli to do a single scan and output results:

whosthere scan -t 5

Output results to a JSON file:

whosthere scan -t 5 --json --pretty > devices.json

Run as a daemon with HTTP API:

whosthere daemon --port=8080

Import aliases in bulk from a file, or export the current ones:

whosthere aliases import ./aliases.yaml
whosthere aliases export --stdout

Additional command line options can be found by running:

whosthere --help

Key bindings (TUI)

Configuration

Whosthere supports multiple configuration methods with the following precedence (highest to lowest):

1. Command line flags - Highest priority. See whosthere --help for available flags.
2. Environment variables - Prefix with WHOSTHERE__. See Configuration via Environment Variables.
3. Configuration file - YAML config file. See Configuration File.
4. Default values - Fallback defaults. See DefaultConfig() in config.go.

Configuration File

Whosthere looks for the configuration file in the following order, using the first one found:

1. Path specified via --config flag or WHOSTHERE_CONFIG environment variable
2. $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/whosthere/config.yaml (if XDG_CONFIG_HOME is set)
3. ~/.config/whosthere/config.yaml (default location)

Example configuration:

# Uncomment the next line to configure a specific network interface - uses OS default if not set
# network_interface: eth0

# When enabled, devices from all network interfaces are shown and persist when switching interfaces
# Note: if two interfaces share the same subnet (e.g. both use 192.168.1.x), devices may get merged
# since they are identified by IP address. Use with caution on overlapping subnets.
all_interfaces: false

# Optional IPv4 CIDR subnets to sweep. When set, the sweeper skips the auto-detected interface subnet unless it is listed here.
# target_subnets: ["10.0.0.0/24", "10.0.1.0/24"]

# WARNING: scanning subnets larger than /16 sends packets to 65535+ IPs per subnet. Enable only if you understand the traffic implications. Consider using smaller /24 subnets for targeted scanning.
# scan_large_subnets: false

# How often to run discovery scans
scan_interval: 20s

# Maximum timeout for each scan, recommended to be less than the scan interval
scan_timeout: 10s

scanners:
  mdns:
    enabled: true
  ssdp:
    enabled: true
  arp:
    enabled: true

sweeper:
  enabled: true
  interval: 5m
  timeout: 20s

port_scanner:
  timeout: 5s
  # List of TCP ports to scan on discovered devices
  tcp: [21, 22, 23, 25, 80, 110, 135, 139, 143, 389, 443, 445, 993, 995, 1433, 1521, 3306, 3389, 5432, 5900, 8080, 8443, 9000, 9090, 9200, 9300, 10000, 27017]

splash:
  enabled: true
  delay: 1s

theme:
  # When disabled, the TUI will use the terminal it's default ANSI colors
  # Also see the NO_COLOR environment variable to completely disable ANSI colors
  enabled: true

  # See the complete list of available themes at https://github.com/ramonvermeulen/whosthere/tree/main/internal/ui/theme/theme.go
  # Set name to "custom" to use the custom colors below
  # For any color that is not configured it will take the default theme value as fallback
  name: default

  # Disable ANSI colors completely, overrides theme.enabled
  # Can also be set via NO_COLOR or WHOSTHERE__THEME__NO_COLOR environment variables
  # no_color: false

  # Custom theme colors (uncomment and set name: custom to use)
  # primitive_background_color: "#000a1a"
  # contrast_background_color: "#001a33"
  # more_contrast_background_color: "#003366"
  # border_color: "#0088ff"
  # title_color: "#00ffff"
  # graphics_color: "#00ffaa"
  # primary_text_color: "#cceeff"
  # secondary_text_color: "#6699ff"
  # tertiary_text_color: "#ffaa00"
  # inverse_text_color: "#000a1a"
  # contrast_secondary_text_color: "#88ddff"

aliases:
  # Uncomment to import aliases.yaml into the local database on startup (only when it changed)
  # auto_import: false
  # Override the aliases file path - defaults to the app config directory
  # file: "/path/to/aliases.yaml"

Environment Variables

General Environment Variables

Configuration via Environment Variables

Any configuration option that is available in the YAML configuration, can be set via environment variables using the WHOSTHERE__ prefix (note the double underscore). Nested configuration keys are separated by double underscores, and keys are case-insensitive.

Examples:

• WHOSTHERE__SPLASH__ENABLED=false - Disable the splash screen, equivalent to splash.enabled: false in the YAML config
• WHOSTHERE__SPLASH__DELAY=2s - Set splash screen delay to 2 seconds, equivalent to splash.delay: 2s in the YAML config
• WHOSTHERE__SCAN_INTERVAL=30s - Set scan interval to 30 seconds, equivalent to scan_interval: 30s in the YAML config
• WHOSTHERE__TARGET_SUBNETS=10.0.0.0/24,10.0.1.0/24 - Set target subnets, equivalent to target_subnets: ["10.0.0.0/24", "10.0.1.0/24"] in the YAML config
• WHOSTHERE__SCANNERS__MDNS__ENABLED=false - Disable mDNS scanner, equivalent to scanners.mdns.enabled: false in the YAML config
• WHOSTHERE__PORT_SCANNER__TCP=80,443,8080 - Set custom TCP ports to scan, equivalent to port_scanner.tcp: [80, 443, 8080] in the YAML config
• WHOSTHERE__THEME__NAME=cyberpunk - Set theme to cyberpunk, equivalent to theme.name: cyberpunk in the YAML config

Device aliases

Aliases live in a local bbolt database in the state directory. To set many at once, import them from a YAML file (aliases.yaml in the config directory; override with the aliases.file config key or a path argument).

The file is a patch, not a mirror, and is only ever read: importing upserts the MACs it contains and leaves others untouched, and TUI edits are never written back to the file. Use export to regenerate it.

version: 1
aliases:
  aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff: "Living Room TV"
  de:ad:be:ef:00:01: "Office Printer"

• version is the file format version; use 1 (files without it default to 1).
• MACs are accepted in any common format and normalized, so AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF, aa-bb-cc-dd-ee-ff and aabbccddeeff are equivalent. An empty alias ("") clears one.
• Invalid MACs are skipped and reported; the rest of the import still goes through.

whosthere aliases import            # from the default location
whosthere aliases import ./aliases.yaml
whosthere aliases export            # to the default location
whosthere aliases export --stdout   # to stdout

Opt in to importing on startup with aliases.auto_import: true. The file is hash-checked and only re-imported when it changed, so an untouched file never clobbers your TUI edits — but a changed file does overwrite the aliases for every MAC it contains. Keep TUI-only aliases out of the file, or export after editing to keep it in sync.

Daemon mode HTTP API

When running Whosthere in daemon mode, it exposes an very simplistic HTTP API with the following endpoints:

Themes

Theme can be configured via the configuration file, or at runtime via the CTRL+t key binding. A complete list of available themes can be found here, feel free to open a PR to add your own theme!

Example of theme configuration:

theme:
  enabled: true
  name: cyberpunk

When the name is set to custom, the other color options can be used to create your own custom theme. When the enabled option is set to false, the TUI will use the terminal's default ANSI colors. When NO_COLOR environment variable is set, all ANSI colors will be disabled.

Logging

Logs are written to the application's state directory:

• $XDG_STATE_HOME/whosthere/app.log (if XDG_STATE_HOME is set)
• ~/.local/state/whosthere/app.log (fallback Linux/MacOS)
• %LOCALAPPDATA%/whosthere/app.log (fallback Windows)

When not running in TUI mode, logs are also written to the console.

Platforms

Whosthere is supported on the following platforms:

• Linux
• macOS
• Windows

Known Issues

For clipboard functionality to work, a fork of go-clipboard is used. Ensure you have the appropriate copy tool installed for your OS:

Disclaimer

Whosthere is intended for use on networks where you have permission to perform network discovery and scanning, such as your own home network. Unauthorized scanning of networks may be illegal and unethical. Always obtain proper authorization before using this tool on any network.

This tool was created primarily for educational purposes and home network exploration. While functional and useful, it should not be considered a professional-grade network monitoring solution. Results are based on unprivileged scanning techniques and may not be comprehensive. For critical network analysis or security assessments, consider using established professional tools with formal support.

Contributing

Contributions and suggestions such as feature requests, bug reports, or improvements are welcome! Feel free to open issues or submit pull requests on the GitHub repository. Please make sure to discuss any major changes on a Github issue before implementing them.