Introduction
jolt is a terminal-based battery and energy monitor for macOS and Linux. It shows you what’s draining your battery and how much power your system is using.
Why jolt?
Section titled “Why jolt?”The built-in battery monitors (Activity Monitor on macOS, GNOME Power Statistics on Linux) are GUI-only. If you spend time in the terminal, SSH into machines, or use tmux, you need something that works there too.
jolt gives you:
- Battery stats in your terminal — works over SSH, in tmux, wherever
- Actual power numbers — CPU, GPU, and total system watts
- Process energy tracking — see which apps are killing your battery
- JSON output — pipe it to scripts, log it, do whatever
What You Get
Section titled “What You Get”Battery Status
Section titled “Battery Status”Charge percentage, time remaining, health, cycle count, and charger wattage. The basics, but in your terminal.
Power Metrics
Section titled “Power Metrics”System power draw broken down by CPU and GPU, plus power mode detection. On Apple Silicon you get ANE (Neural Engine) power too.
Process Tracking
Section titled “Process Tracking”Processes sorted by energy impact with color-coded severity. Expand parent processes to see their children. Kill energy hogs directly from the UI.
Themes
Section titled “Themes”Import from 300+ iTerm2 color schemes or make your own. Supports dark, light, and auto modes.
Next Steps
Section titled “Next Steps”Install jolt and try it out.