WhatTheLoad

WhatTheLoad is a macOS menu bar diagnostics app focused on fast, practical system visibility.

It shows live network throughput in the menu bar and provides a compact popover with deep system tabs for CPU, memory, network, Wi-Fi, disk, processes, timeline history, and battery.

Highlights

• Live menu bar telemetry:
  • Download/upload speed (↓ / ↑)
  • Battery time remaining or charging state (no battery percentage noise)
• Multi-tab diagnostics dashboard:
  • CPU, Memory, Network, Wi-Fi, Disk, Processes, Timeline, Battery
• Smart alert engine:
  • CPU usage, CPU temp, memory pressure, packet loss, jitter, low disk, low battery
  • Cooldown + quiet hours
  • Blocking popups for critical events
• Timeline + history:
  • Persisted events and periodic metric snapshots
  • 24h / 7d view with trend sparklines
• Network incident detection:
  • Gateway unreachable
  • Internet outage
  • DNS failure
  • Unstable link
• Disk cleanup tools:
  • Category cleanup with size estimates: Caches, Logs, DerivedData, Browser Caches
  • Finder reveal and trash actions
• Process drilldown:
  • Select process for details, CPU/memory trends, executable path, open file/socket counts
  • Guarded Quit / Force Quit actions
• Battery automation:
  • Auto-enable low-power polling profile on low battery
  • Optional auto-open Battery settings
• Diagnostics bundle export:
  • snapshot.json, timeline_events.json, metric_snapshots.json, process_top.json, network_diagnostics.json

Permissions

Wi-Fi SSID access

macOS can hide SSID unless location permission is granted.

WhatTheLoad supports this flow directly in the Wi-Fi tab:

• Request Access
• Open Location Settings fallback when macOS does not show the prompt

Required Info.plist keys are included for location usage descriptions.

Build

Debug

xcodebuild -project WhatTheLoad.xcodeproj -scheme WhatTheLoad -configuration Debug build

Release

xcodebuild -project WhatTheLoad.xcodeproj -scheme WhatTheLoad -configuration Release build

Built app path:

~/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/WhatTheLoad-*/Build/Products/Release/WhatTheLoad.app

Install to Applications

pkill -x WhatTheLoad || true
cp -R ~/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/WhatTheLoad-*/Build/Products/Release/WhatTheLoad.app /Applications/
open /Applications/WhatTheLoad.app

Diagnostics Export Contents

• snapshot.json: current monitor state
• timeline_events.json: recent timeline events
• metric_snapshots.json: periodic snapshots
• process_top.json: top processes at export time
• network_diagnostics.json: route/DNS/incident diagnostics
• README.txt: export timestamp and file guide

Tech Notes

• SwiftUI + Observation (@Observable monitors)
• Main monitor coordinator with adaptive polling profile
• Uses macOS APIs: mach, IOKit, CoreWLAN, Network, CoreLocation, SystemConfiguration

License

MIT (LICENSE)