flow

real-time network throughput in your terminal.

install

arch linux

yay -S flow-network-monitor-bin

homebrew

brew install programmersd21/flow/flow

go

go install github.com/programmersd21/flow/cmd/flow@latest

make sure $(go env gopath)/bin is on your path, otherwise your shell won't find the new binary (and a stale copy elsewhere can shadow it , make install warns about both).

--version reports the real release for every install method: builds carry an injected version, and go install falls back to the module version recorded in the binary.

or download a binary from releases.

usage

flow                              # hero view (default)
flow --tiny                       # single line, for status bars
flow --mini                       # graphs only
flow --compact                    # condensed numbers
flow --json                       # one JSON snapshot, then exit
flow --json-stream                # newline-delimited JSON, continuous
flow --theme nord --window 5m     # override theme and time window
flow --no-anim                    # disable animations (reduced motion)
flow --format '↓ {{.Down}} ↑ {{.Up}}'   # templated text output

when stdout is not a tty (a pipe, a script, a status bar) flow prints a single plain line instead of starting the tui, so it is safe to pipe.

tmux

set -g status-right "#(flow --tiny --no-color)"

waybar / polybar / sketchybar / i3blocks

all of them can consume flow --json-stream or a fixed-width --format line. see docs/integrations.md for copy-paste snippets.

features

• mirrored braille waveform: download above the axis, upload below, rendered on a 2x4-dot braille canvas with a smooth interpolated crest
• big block digits: 5x5 bitmap hero numbers (timr-tui technique), chunky enough to read at a glance, tabular so they never jitter
• calm motion: spring-driven value easing, an idle breathing pulse, a burst ripple, a pulsing link dot, a 180ms theme crossfade, and a skippable launch sequence, all disabled by --no-anim
• time windows: w cycles 1m / 5m / 15m / 1h / 24h
• scale modes: s cycles auto / linear / sqrt; g toggles the faint midpoint gridline
• snapshot export: s writes the current frame as .ansi and .txt
• 11 built-in themes: default, nord, dracula, gruvbox, forest, monochrome, catppuccin, tokyo-night, rose-pine, kanagawa, ansi
• custom toml themes: load custom color schemes from your config directory (see docs/themes.md)
• text streams first: --json, --json-stream, and --format (see docs/json.md)
• no telemetry: the only network call flow makes is a latency probe to your configured ping target
• cross-platform: linux, macos, and windows, on amd64 and arm64, built without cgo
• pipes cleanly: not a tty means a single plain line, so status bars never receive escape codes

keys

key	action
q	quit
m	cycle view mode
d	cycle display filter (both / down / up)
t	theme selector
n	network processes inspector
i	cycle network interface
i	interface details
c	cycle unit scale (auto / kb/s / mb/s / gb/s)
b	toggle bits/sec vs bytes/sec
+ / -	adjust sampling interval
p	pause / resume sampling
r	reset peak counters (press twice)
g	open github repository in browser
u	open github issues in browser
x	open github discussions in browser
$ / v	sponsor / donate on github
?	help menu
w	cycle time window (1m / 5m / 15m / 1h / 24h)
s	export snapshot (.ansi + .txt)
s	cycle graph scale (auto / linear / sqrt)
g	toggle gridlines

configuration

created automatically on first run:

Linux    ~/.config/flow/config.toml
macOS    ~/Library/Application Support/flow/config.toml
Windows  %APPDATA%\flow\config.toml

refresh     = "100ms"
theme       = "default"
unit        = "auto"
interface   = "auto"
bits        = false
ping_target = "1.1.1.1"
no_anim     = false   # disable animations

environment variables

variable	effect
no_color	disable all ansi color
flow_reduce_motion=1	reduced motion, same as --no-anim
flow_config	config file path (default: xdg config dir)
flow_data	directory for persisted daily totals (default: xdg config dir)
flow_glyphs	force braille, blocks, or ascii waveform glyphs

development

make check
make test
make build

license

mit