SwiftBar Plugin For macOS Incident Triage

Find what made your Mac slow.

System Monitor turns load, memory pressure, disk, battery, and process spikes into one action-oriented menu: status, likely cause, next step, recent activity, and safe actions.

Latest release Raw plugin file

Current version: v1.3.0
Install path: swiftbar/ subfolder
Update path: In-menu GitHub updater
Release model: Semantic releases on main

System Monitor
---
Triage
--Status: Critical - Busy app using too much CPU
--Likely cause: Cursor Helper is now top CPU at 126.8%
--Next step: Open Activity Monitor
--How alerts work: CPU > 90%, load warning >= 6
--Recent activity
----now critical load 10.62 CPU Cursor Helper 126.8%
----1m critical load 10.21 CPU tsserver 110.5%
----5m critical load 5.46 CPU mds_stores 91.4%
Actions
--Copy Incident Report
--Update from GitHub

Install note SwiftBar traverses nested folders and symlinks. Point it at the repo's swiftbar/ subfolder, which contains a standalone plugin file, or use the single released script.

Why This Exists

Most menu bar monitors stop at numbers.

This plugin tries to close the loop: detect a slowdown, preserve recent context, rank a likely cause, and put the next safe action nearby.

Typical monitor

Shows that something is wrong.

Raw CPU, memory, and disk readouts
Little or no causal context
User has to switch tools to investigate

System Monitor

Shows what likely changed and what to do next.

Single triage block with status, cause, and next step
Rolling Flight Recorder history at 1m, 5m, and 15m
Safe actions grouped away from disruptive ones

Operational Model

Built like a utility, not a dashboard theme.

Triage first

The first screen answers three questions: what is wrong, what likely caused it, and what should happen next.

Flight Recorder

Lightweight history stays local in the plugin cache and compares current state with recent checkpoints before a slowdown.

Safe action boundaries

Quick actions stay close to the diagnosis. More disruptive actions are explicitly separated so routine triage does not hide risk.

Maintained as software

Semantic versions, release automation, workflow validation, docs, and a background updater are part of the product, not afterthoughts.

Install

Two supported paths. Same updater.

Clone the repository into a stable folder.
Point SwiftBar at the repo's swiftbar/ subfolder.
If needed, run chmod +x system-monitor.5s.sh once.
Use About > Update from GitHub for updates.

Download system-monitor.5s.sh from the latest release.
Drop it into an existing SwiftBar plugin folder.
Mark it executable.
The same updater replaces the local script in place.

brew install swiftbar
git clone https://github.com/oleg-koval/swiftbar-plugins.git

/path/to/swiftbar-plugins/swiftbar/

Open-Source Standards

Public repo hygiene is part of the deliverable.

Release automation

Conventional Commits feed semantic-release, which updates the changelog, syncs plugin version metadata, tags releases, and publishes the script asset.

View releases

Runtime-aligned CI

Plugin validation runs on macOS. The Pages site builds separately. Release revalidates before publishing so the shipped script matches the repo state.

View workflows

Contributor hygiene

Issue forms, PR template, CODEOWNERS, security policy, Dependabot, and commit linting are wired in so outside contributions land cleanly.

Read contributing guide