# FAQ

Canonical: https://plottypus.com/docs/faq

Last updated: 2026-09-23

> Short answers: sudo, network, cost, why a dash instead of zero, why CPU watts blink on macOS 27, and how plottypus differs from powermetrics and Activity Monitor.

## Does it need sudo?

No. Every reading comes from APIs an ordinary user may call: the SMC through IOKit, IOReport, IOKit HID sensors, Mach host statistics, `sysctl`, `proc_pidinfo` and `proc_pid_rusage`. The only thing root adds is the numbers for other users' processes, which show `—` without it.

## Does it use the network?

No. The only sockets it creates never leave the machine: a `PF_ROUTE` routing socket, a local channel to the kernel that answers "which interface carries the default route?" for the network panel, and a Unix socket pair inside the process for signal handling. It imports no `connect`, `bind`, `listen` or `getaddrinfo`; you can check that yourself:

```sh
nm -u "$(command -v plottypus)" | grep -E '^_(connect|bind|listen|getaddrinfo)$'
```

That prints nothing. There is no telemetry, no update check and no crash reporter. The licence check is offline. See [Privacy](https://plottypus.com/privacy).

## What does it cost to run?

About 1.5% of one core at the default 500 ms interval and about 1% at 1 s, measured on an M5 Pro at 160×45 with medians over repeated runs. It redraws only when something changed, so an idle screen costs no redraws. `p` pauses sampling entirely.

## How do I see CPU temperature and fan speed?

Activity Monitor does not show them. plottypus reads the SMC and HID sensors in the terminal, with no sudo, and shows `—` when the Mac has no such sensor. Fanless Airs have temperatures and no fans. [Check Mac CPU temperature in the terminal](https://plottypus.com/blog/mac-cpu-temperature-terminal).

## How do I see CPU watts without sudo?

The power panel prints them. On the M5 Pro (Mac17,8) the CPU figure is the SMC rails, live. On other chips it is the last IOReport value, marked `≈` with its age, then `—` after 10 seconds. [Mac CPU watts in the terminal, no sudo](https://plottypus.com/blog/mac-cpu-watts-without-sudo).

## Why `—` instead of `0`?

Because `0` is a measurement and `—` is not. When the kernel refuses to describe a process, or a Mac has no such sensor, plottypus says it does not know. Fanless Airs show no fans, desktops show no battery, restricted processes show `—`, and JSON prints `null`.

## Why does CPU power show `≈`, or disappear?

On macOS 27 the IOReport energy counters for the CPU, ANE and DRAM publish in batches, 2 to 108 seconds apart in our captures, and sometimes not for much longer. A sampler that divides each interval's energy by the interval's length gets 0 J most of the time and shows 0 W. plottypus divides by the driver's own timestamps, holds the value between batches, marks it `≈` with its age, and drops it after 10 s. On the M5 Pro the SMC power rails give live CPU watts anyway. Details: [Power and battery](https://plottypus.com/docs/panels#power-and-battery).

## How is this different from `powermetrics`?

`powermetrics` needs sudo and prints text samples. plottypus needs no sudo, holds batched IOReport readings with their age instead of showing zero, and puts power next to clocks, temperatures, memory and processes on one screen, with JSON for scripts.

## Why does my CPU read lower than Activity Monitor's?

The cpu headline weights each core's busy time by the clock it ran at. A core busy at a low clock counts for less, so the headline shows how much of the chip's capacity is in use. Activity Monitor's plain busy share appears as `busy` beside it when the two differ by more than 10 points. Per-process CPU uses Activity Monitor's unit exactly: 100 is one core.

## Does it work over ssh or in tmux?

Yes. Theme detection is skipped over ssh, so set `PLOTTYPUS_THEME` there. In tmux it gets 256 colours by default; `PLOTTYPUS_COLORS=truecolor` if your setup supports 24-bit. See [Troubleshooting](https://plottypus.com/docs/troubleshooting#tmux).

## Does it work on Intel Macs or Linux?

No. It is an Apple Silicon tool. The source compiles on other platforms with the collectors stubbed out, but it samples nothing there, and no such build is shipped.

## Which Macs has it been tested on?

The M5 Pro (Mac17,8) on macOS 27, end to end. Every other chip is covered by fixtures and golden screens built from documented channel names, not yet by hardware. See [Supported Macs](https://plottypus.com/docs/supported-macs), and please send `plottypus doctor` output from yours.

## Is the source open?

No. plottypus is proprietary. The compiled release is free to use under the [EULA](https://plottypus.com/eula), on any number of your Macs, for personal or commercial use. Third-party components keep their own licences; their notices ship in the tarball as `THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.html`.

## What does Pro cost, and when?

Pro is not on sale. The plan is a one-time purchase covering every 1.x update, sold only once the free release passes 500 installs or stars. See [Pro and the licence file](https://plottypus.com/docs/pro-licence).

## What is coming in 1.1?

Planned: history you can scrub back through, energy and battery reports, alerts that run without the dashboard, session record and replay, a status line for tmux and menu bars, CSV export, grouping processes by app, more themes, shell completions and a man page. Several of these will be Pro. None of them is in 1.0.0.