Introduction
# Mactop Skill
Execute mactop in headless TOON mode and parse the output for hardware metrics.
## Prerequisites
- **mactop installed**: `brew install mactop` - **PATH includes /usr/sbin**: Required for sysctl access
## Usage
### Get Full Metrics
```bash mactop --format toon --headless --count 1 ```
### Parse Key Metrics
**CPU Usage:** ```bash mactop --format toon --headless --count 1 | grep "^cpu_usage:" | awk '{print $2}' ```
**RAM (used/total GB):** ```bash mactop --format toon --headless --count 1 | grep -E "^ (Used|Total):" | awk '{printf "%.1f", $2/1073741824}' ```
**GPU Usage:** ```bash mactop --format toon --headless --count 1 | grep "^gpu_usage:" | awk '{print $2}' ```
**Power (total/CPU/GPU):** ```bash mactop --format toon --headless --count 1 | grep -E "^ (TotalPower|CPUPower|GPUPower):" | awk '{print $2}' ```
**Thermal State:** ```bash mactop --format toon --headless --count 1 | grep "^thermal_state:" | awk '{print $2}' ```
**Temperature:** ```bash mactop --format toon --headless --count 1 | grep "^ SocTemp:" | awk '{print $2}' ```
**Chip Info:** ```bash mactop --format toon --headless --count 1 | grep "^ Name:" | awk '{print $2}' ```
**Network I/O (bytes/sec):** ```bash mactop --format toon --headless --count 1 | grep -E "^( InBytesPerSec| OutBytesPerSec):" | awk '{print $2}' ```
**Thunderbolt Buses:** ```bash mactop --format toon --headless --count 1 | grep "^ Name:" | awk '{print $2}' ```
## Options
| Option | Description | |--------|-------------| | `--count N` | Number of samples (default: 1) | | `--interval MS` | Sample interval in milliseconds (default: 1000) |
## TOON Format
``` timestamp: "2026-01-25T20:00:00-07:00" soc_metrics: CPUPower: 0.15 GPUPower: 0.02 TotalPower: 8.5 SocTemp: 42.3 memory: Total: 25769803776 Used: 14852408320 Available: 10917395456 cpu_usage: 5.2 gpu_usage: 1.8 thermal_state: Normal system_info: Name: Apple M4 Pro CoreCount: 12 ```
## Response Example
Format metrics in a readable box:
``` ┌─ Apple M4 Pro ──────────────────────┐ │ CPU: 5.2% | RAM: 13.8/24.0 GB │ │ GPU: 1.8% | Power: 8.5W total │ │ Thermal: Normal | SoC: 42.3°C │ └─────────────────────────────────────┘ ```
## Troubleshooting
- **"sysctl not found"** → Add `/usr/sbin` to PATH - **No output** → Verify mactop is installed: `which mactop`