CLI System Stats

`ed system stats`

Takes one sample of this Mac and prints it, or keeps sampling with --follow. It is the default subcommand, so ed system on its own runs it.

ed system stats [--json] [--follow] [--interval <seconds>] [--processes <n>]

Options

Name	Type / values	Default	What it does
`--json`	flag	off	Emit JSON on stdout instead of the human lines. Long form only, there is no `-j`.
`--follow`, `-f`	flag	off	Keep sampling until interrupted. Also switches `--json` from one pretty document to one compact document per line.
`--interval`	seconds, greater than 0	`2`	Seconds between samples when following. Ignored without `--follow`, and clamped up to a floor of `0.5`.
`--processes`	integer, 0 or more	`0`	Include this many top processes by CPU in each sample.
`--help`, `-h`	flag	off	Print the help for this command on stdout and exit 0.

Without --follow the command prints one sample and exits. The first line is a header carrying the host name, the OS string and the core count; the second is the sample itself:

$ ed system stats
Studio MacBook Pro  macOS Version 26.5.2 (Build 25F84)  14 cores
cpu  53.3%   mem 73% of 25.8 GB   load 16.54 19.29 17.56   net down 36.6 KB/s up 9.1 KB/s

--processes n appends a table of the top n processes by CPU under the sample, the same rows the app's Processes tab shows for this Mac:

$ ed system stats --processes 5
Studio MacBook Pro  macOS Version 26.5.2 (Build 25F84)  14 cores
cpu  45.3%   mem 72% of 25.8 GB   load 16.54 19.29 17.56   net down 26.0 KB/s up 4.9 KB/s
PID    USER           CPU    MEM  NAME
20520  pulkit         195.1  0.0  turbo
405    _windowserver  32.3   0.3  WindowServer
36852  pulkit         21.6   1.7  Browser Helper (Renderer)
25053  pulkit         20.8   2.0  2.1.226
54438  pulkit         19.6   7.7  com.apple.Virtualization.VirtualMachine

With --follow the header prints once and each later sample adds one line. The process table, if you asked for one, is reprinted under every sample rather than once:

$ ed system stats --follow --interval 0.5
Studio MacBook Pro  macOS Version 26.5.2 (Build 25F84)  14 cores
cpu  61.5%   mem 74% of 25.8 GB   load 17.81 19.27 17.67   net down 39.2 KB/s up 85.0 KB/s
cpu  60.9%   mem 74% of 25.8 GB   load 17.81 19.27 17.67   net down 43.8 KB/s up 24.8 KB/s
cpu  65.0%   mem 74% of 25.8 GB   load 17.81 19.27 17.67   net down 49.4 KB/s up 20.9 KB/s

`--json` shape

One object with a host half that never changes and a sample half that does. This is a real document, trimmed to one process, one network interface and three of the fourteen corePercent entries:

{
  "host": {
    "arch": "arm64",
    "cores": 14,
    "cpuModel": "Apple M4 Pro",
    "host": "Studio MacBook Pro",
    "kernel": "25.5.0",
    "memTotalKB": 25165824,
    "os": "macOS Version 26.5.2 (Build 25F84)",
    "osID": "macos",
    "virtual": false
  },
  "sample": {
    "at": "2026-08-08T16:37:59Z",
    "cpu": {
      "corePercent": [
        46.42857142857143,
        39.285714285714285,
        29.09090909090909
      ],
      "stealPercent": 0,
      "totalPercent": 52.78934221482098
    },
    "disk": {
      "devices": [],
      "readBps": 0,
      "writeBps": 0
    },
    "intervalSeconds": 0.5604119300842285,
    "load": [
      15.4755859375,
      18.97265625,
      17.46337890625
    ],
    "memory": {
      "availableKB": 6707072,
      "buffCacheKB": 5027472,
      "swapTotalKB": 5242880,
      "swapUsedKB": 3656192,
      "totalKB": 25165824,
      "usedKB": 18458752,
      "usedPercent": 73.34849039713541
    },
    "network": {
      "interfaces": [
        {
          "name": "en0",
          "rxBps": 58471.274862180486,
          "txBps": 436707.33412691054,
          "virtual": false
        }
      ],
      "rxBps": 58471.274862180486,
      "txBps": 436707.33412691054
    },
    "processes": [
      {
        "command": "/opt/homebrew/bin/turbo",
        "cpuPercent": 196.5,
        "memPercent": 0,
        "name": "turbo",
        "pid": 20520,
        "rssKB": 7312,
        "user": "pulkit"
      }
    ],
    "tasks": {
      "runnable": 0,
      "total": 566
    },
    "uptimeSeconds": 97895.422400625
  }
}

What the fields mean:

host.os is built as the word macOS followed by the version string macOS itself reports, which is why it reads macOS Version 26.5.2 (Build 25F84). host.osID is always macos here, and host.virtual is always false.
host.host is the computer's Sharing name, falling back to kern.hostname. host.kernel is kern.osrelease, host.arch is hw.machine, and host.cpuModel is machdep.cpu.brand_string.
sample.at is the sample time as 2026-08-08T16:37:59Z, and sample.intervalSeconds is how long the window behind this sample actually was, which is close to but not exactly --interval.
cpu.totalPercent is 0 to 100 across the whole machine, and cpu.corePercent has one entry per logical core in core order.
Every *KB number is kilobytes and every *Bps number is bytes per second. memory.usedPercent is usedKB over totalKB.
load is the one, five and fifteen minute load averages, in that order.
processes is present even when it is empty, so the key never disappears between runs.

Examples

ed system stats
ed system stats --json
ed system stats --processes 10
ed system stats --follow --interval 5 --json | jq -c '{at: .sample.at, cpu: .sample.cpu.totalPercent}'

Behaviour notes

Nothing is mutated and nothing is written: the command samples and prints. Neither the Edith app nor the menu bar helper has to be running, and no macOS permission is involved, so this never exits 4.

The first sample costs about half a second. ed takes a throwaway sample, sleeps 500 ms, then takes the one it prints, because CPU and network figures are deltas between two readings and the first reading has nothing to compare against. That is also why intervalSeconds on the first line of a --follow run reads around 0.56 rather than your --interval.

--interval is validated as greater than zero and finite, so --interval 0, a negative value and --interval nan all exit 2 before any sampling happens. --processes is validated as zero or more and exits 2 when negative, though you have to write --processes=-1 to get there: --processes -1 is read as a missing value by the parser and exits 2 for that reason instead.

$ ed system stats --interval 0
error: --interval must be greater than zero

$ ed system stats --processes=-1
error: --processes cannot be negative
hint: pass 0 or more

Interrupting a --follow run with Ctrl-C is the normal way to stop it. There is no sample count option and no timeout.