livefetch

A fastfetch-style system info tool, with two twists the others don't have:

1. Animated logos — GIF / WebP / PNG / JPG, rendered with Kitty graphics, iTerm2 inline images, or a half-block ANSI fallback.
2. Live mode by default — stays open and refreshes CPU / memory / swap / network every 500 ms, with Unicode sparklines and bars. Use --once for the classic snapshot behaviour.

Install

Arch Linux (AUR)

yay -S livefetch-bin    # prebuilt binary from the latest GitHub release
yay -S livefetch-git    # builds from master

(or paru, or any AUR helper of your choice)

From source

cargo install --path .

Or build a release binary:

cargo build --release
# binary lands in target/release/livefetch

Requires a recent Rust toolchain (2021 edition).

Usage

# Live dashboard (default): refreshes metrics + animates the image until Ctrl-C
livefetch --image ~/Pictures/tux.gif

# Snapshot mode: print info + first frame and exit (good for .zshrc)
livefetch --image ~/Pictures/tux.gif --once

# Custom refresh interval
livefetch --refresh 1000

# Pick the image protocol explicitly
livefetch --protocol kitty   # or iterm2, ansi, none

# Custom module list
livefetch --modules os,kernel,cpu,memory,network

# List every available module
livefetch --list-modules

# Strip a solid background from the logo (handy for transparent-looking gifs)
livefetch --image logo.gif --chroma auto
livefetch --image logo.gif --chroma '#ffffff' --chroma-tolerance 32

Flags

Flag	Description
--image <PATH>	Image to display (gif / webp / png / jpg).
--protocol <auto|kitty|iterm2|ansi|none>	Force a specific image protocol.
--image-cols <N>	Columns reserved for the image (default 34).
--no-animate	Render only the first frame.
--once	Snapshot mode — print and exit.
--refresh <MS>	Live metrics refresh interval, milliseconds (default 500, min 50).
--modules <a,b,c>	Override the module list.
--list-modules	Print every available module + description.
--chroma <auto|#RRGGBB|none>	Remove a solid background colour from the image.
--chroma-tolerance <0-255>	Per-channel tolerance when matching the chroma colour.
--config <PATH>	Path to a JSON config (default ~/.config/livefetch/config.json).

Config file

~/.config/livefetch/config.json (or %APPDATA%\livefetch\config.json on Windows):

{
  "image": "~/Pictures/tux.gif",
  "protocol": "auto",
  "image_cols": 34,
  "animate": true,
  "live": true,
  "refresh_ms": 500,
  "modules": ["title", "separator", "os", "kernel", "cpu", "memory", "network", "colors"],
  "chroma": "auto",
  "chroma_tolerance": 24
}

CLI flags always override the config file.

Modules

Run livefetch --list-modules for the full set. A quick summary:

• Identity: title, separator, os, host, kernel, init, uptime, loadavg, packages
• Session: shell, terminal, session, de, wm, resolution
• Live metrics: cpu, cputemp, memory, swap, network, disk
• Network: localip, localip6
• Misc: audio, theme, battery, locale, gpu, gpudriver
• Layout: break, colors

Static modules (OS, packages, GPU…) are computed once and cached; only the live ones (cpu, memory, swap, network, …) recompute on each tick.

Platform support

Platform	Status
Linux	First-class. All modules.
macOS	First-class. All modules except Linux-specific (init, cputemp, GTK theme).
Windows	Core modules work; some platform-specific bits return n/a.

Terminal protocols:

• Kitty — Kitty, Ghostty (auto-detected).
• iTerm2 inline images — iTerm2, WezTerm.
• ANSI half-blocks — fallback for anything else (xterm, Alacritty, tmux, terminals without graphics).

Why not fastfetch / neofetch?

• They're snapshot-only — print and exit.
• They don't animate logos.

livefetch defaults to a small live dashboard (CPU / RAM / network sparklines) next to an animated logo. If you want the snapshot behaviour for .zshrc, pass --once.

Releases

Tag-driven via GitHub Actions. Pushing a tag matching v* builds release binaries for Linux x86_64 and macOS aarch64 (Apple Silicon), and attaches them — plus SHA-256 checksums — to a GitHub Release.

git tag v0.1.0
git push origin v0.1.0

License

MIT