Mactop Skill

Execute mactop in headless mode and parse the output for Apple Silicon hardware metrics.

Prerequisites

• mactop installed: brew install mactop
• PATH includes /usr/sbin: Required for sysctl access

Usage

Get Full Metrics

mactop --headless --count 1 --format json

Use --format toon when a compact human-readable stream is better than JSON.

Parse Key Metrics

CPU Usage:

mactop --format toon --headless --count 1 | grep "^cpu_usage:" | awk '{print $2}'

RAM (used/total GB):

mactop --format toon --headless --count 1 | grep -E "^  (Used|Total):" | awk '{printf "%.1f", $2/1073741824}'

GPU Usage:

mactop --format toon --headless --count 1 | grep "^gpu_usage:" | awk '{print $2}'

Power (total/CPU/GPU):

mactop --format toon --headless --count 1 | grep -E "^  (TotalPower|CPUPower|GPUPower):" | awk '{print $2}'

Thermal State:

mactop --format toon --headless --count 1 | grep "^thermal_state:" | awk '{print $2}'

Temperature:

mactop --format toon --headless --count 1 | grep "^  SocTemp:" | awk '{print $2}'

Chip Info:

mactop --format toon --headless --count 1 | grep "^  Name:" | awk '{print $2}'

Network I/O (bytes/sec):

mactop --format toon --headless --count 1 | grep -E "^(  InBytesPerSec|  OutBytesPerSec):" | awk '{print $2}'

Thunderbolt Buses:

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