Brings btop back to the Omarchy bar, with CPU, RAM, GPU usage, VRAM and temperature readings. In isolated tests on an Intel Core i7-4790, the widget added roughly 10 MiB of RAM while idle; idle telemetry used about 0.2% of one logical CPU.
See btop launch from the bar, switch between floating and tiled layouts, apply a 250 ms refresh interval live, and update its keybinding.
screenrecording-2026-08-14_13-22-48.mp4
- applies settings live to the running btop application
- preserves Omarchy's btop theme without touching the normal user
btop.conf
omarchy plugin add https://github.com/omarchy-QOL/omarchy-btop-activity --enableThe plugin starts with the information Linux already provides: CPU and RAM usage, available temperature sensors, and any GPU readings exposed by your driver. Omarchy already includes btop and Fastfetch. If GPU readings are missing, see the optional hardware setup for your hardware. The plugin detects supported tools automatically.
After installation:
- left-click bar icon to start/close btop in the selected window mode
- right-click bar icon to open the plugin settings
- choose Settings to change plugin and btop options
- choose Help to open built-in help in the selected window mode
- hover over it to see RAM use, CPU use and temperature, and GPU use, temperature, and VRAM
The plugin keeps a short list of useful controls before opening btop:
| Setting | Choices |
|---|---|
| Tray icon | Meters, CPU, Pulse, or a custom image |
| Keybindings | opens the Omarchy user bindings file |
| Window mode | floating or tiled |
| Update interval | any whole number from 100 ms to one day |
| Process tree | on or off |
| Process sorting | lazy CPU, direct CPU, memory, or program |
| Transparent background | on or off |
| More plugin settings | opens the advanced settings file |
For the update interval, press Enter or click the value to edit it. Left/Right
(or h/l) change it by 1 ms. Up/Down (or k/j) move through the presets in
settings.toml while still letting you type any value in
btop's full range.
Plugin readings refresh while hovering over the icon or viewing its menu, then pause when idle. That keeps things lean instead of constantly checking system usage in the background.
Edit ~/.config/hypr/bindings.lua directly, or select Keybindings in the
plugin settings to open it. Omarchy uses Super+Ctrl+T for ordinary btop. To
use Super+Ctrl+Alt+G for the plugin's toggle action instead, add:
hl.unbind("SUPER + CTRL + T")
o.bind("SUPER + CTRL + ALT + G", "Activity", os.getenv("HOME")
.. "/.config/omarchy/plugins/ilyazar.btop/helpers/toggle-btop.sh")
-- for ordinary btop, comment out the two lines above and uncomment this:
-- o.bind("SUPER + CTRL + ALT + G", "Activity", { tui = "btop" })Use SUPER + CTRL + T in o.bind to keep the original shortcut. For ordinary
btop instead of the plugin's toggle action, use { tui = "btop" } as the last
argument.
The toggle shortcut follows the plugin's window mode and leaves ordinary btop windows alone.
After Hyprland reloads, the settings row shows the effective shortcut, or
Unbound when no Activity binding remains.
Cycle Tray icon through Meters, CPU, Pulse, and Custom. The
custom path is stored separately, so switching between styles does not discard
it. For Custom, enter an absolute path, a ~/path, or a file:// URL, then
press Enter or Save. SVG and PNG both work. An invalid path shows !.
Depending on the installed icon themes, useful paths include:
/usr/share/icons/hicolor/scalable/apps/btop.svg/usr/share/icons/HighContrast/scalable/apps/utilities-system-monitor.svg/usr/share/icons/Yaru/scalable/apps/system-monitor-app-symbolic.svg
Changes made in the settings menu are saved in Omarchy's shell.json.
Left-click behavior and interval presets use the optional settings.toml file
described below.
Since v0.2.5, the plugin offers an optional user-owned settings file at
~/.config/omarchy/ilyazar.btop/settings.toml, respecting XDG_CONFIG_HOME.
At the bottom of the settings popup, More plugin settings > Open settings file opens your copy in Omarchy's configured editor. If the file is missing, this button offers the Yes/No prompt again. Plugin updates do not touch your copy.
The shipped defaults are:
left_click = "toggle"
poll_intervals = [250, 500, 1000, 2000, 5000]left_click:"toggle"is the default and closes the plugin's btop window when it is already open;"open"launches or focuses instead. This affects only the bar icon's left-click. The popup's start [b]top action always opens or focuses btoppoll_intervals: the preset ladder for the update-interval arrows, in milliseconds, not additional polling loops. Use a nonempty list of whole numbers between 100 and 86400000. Values are sorted and duplicates removed
Keep each setting on one line. Blank lines and # comments are supported;
omitted settings use their shipped defaults. Valid saves apply immediately,
without restarting the shell. Invalid values, duplicate keys, unknown keys, and
malformed entries show an error below the editor button and leave the session's
last valid settings unchanged. Removing the file restores defaults.
AMD Radeon, NVIDIA, and Intel graphics expose different information through different tools. When a reading is missing, the plugin can use an installed tool for that hardware to fill the gap. Installing one does not guarantee every reading: some GPUs do not expose a separate temperature or dedicated video memory.
See the hardware setup guide, also available on the website.
The plugin stores popup choices in Omarchy's shell.json and advanced choices
in the user-owned settings.toml described above. It generates its private btop
config at $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/omarchy-btop-activity/btop.conf. It verifies that
the runtime directory is available, user-owned, and writable before creating its
own private directory. The normal user btop.conf is never read or written.
The runtime file is created from Omarchy's packaged btop config. Quickshell
writes it atomically, and a running btop receives its supported config-reload
signal only after a successful change. If the file already exists, the plugin
reuses it and updates the btop settings stored in shell.json. Otherwise, it
creates the file when needed.
Omarchy plugins have no uninstall hook. Removing the plugin can leave this temporary directory until the user runtime is cleared. That often happens at the final logout and always happens on reboot; user lingering can delay it. The leftover is harmless: normal btop never reads it, and reinstalling the plugin reuses it. No marker or backup files are created.
GPU temperature and VRAM depend on driver support. If unavailable, the hover
says -- or -- (VRAM). See the hardware-specific
setup instructions for optional tools, permissions,
and verification commands.
omarchy plugin remove ilyazar.btopRemoving the plugin stops using its private btop settings. It does not remove btop or change btop's normal configuration. Your advanced settings file is preserved. The temporary generated btop config may remain until the user runtime is cleared.
Planned work stays at the top. Shipped entries come from CHANGELOG.md, newest first.
| Release | Date | What changed |
|---|---|---|
| 0.2.4 | 2026-09-20 | avoid GNU find crashes during GPU sampling |
| keep scanner failures visible and tested | ||
| 0.2.3 | 2026-09-13 | isolate and reuse a private runtime config |
| compact settings and improve their navigation | ||
| apply transparent backgrounds live | ||
| show the identified default render GPU | ||
| 0.2.2 | 2026-09-05 | native GPU telemetry without compiled helpers |
| keep CPU and RAM sampling responsive | ||
| show each GPU and distinguish VRAM/shared RAM | ||
| document optional tools and Intel permissions | ||
| align tooltip readings and compact legend | ||
| keep popup and tray icons in sync | ||
| place interval arrows left of the input | ||
| simplify the release table | ||
| 0.2.1 | 2026-09-02 | fix tooltip text and stream Intel GPU data |
| keep Intel GPU sampling responsive at scale | ||
| 0.2.0 | 2026-08-21 | simplify the release table |
| 0.1.10 | 2026-08-21 | allow any update interval or preset stepping |
| restore settings on plugin disable or removal | ||
| show Intel/NVIDIA GPU data after helper setup | ||
| keep the widget readable on transparent bars | ||
| 0.1.9 | 2026-08-15 | show GPU usage and temperature in hover/menu |
| indicate unavailable GPU temperature | ||
| fix Scroll Lock display in shortcuts | ||
| 0.1.8 | 2026-08-14 | demo launch, window modes, refresh, and shortcuts |
| 0.1.7 | 2026-08-14 | update preview and explain Activity shortcuts |
| 0.1.6 | 2026-08-14 | show the current Activity shortcut or Unbound |
| place custom icon controls beside icon choice | ||
| 0.1.5 | 2026-08-14 | open user bindings from settings |
| apply btop settings without plugin reload | ||
| create private btop config if missing | ||
| 0.1.4 | 2026-08-13 | keep settings usable while private config loads |
| switch open btop windows: floating or tiled | ||
| add the 250 ms interval | ||
| 0.1.3 | 2026-08-13 | use Omarchy's btop config and current theme |
| 0.1.2 | 2026-08-12 | isolate plugin settings and clean up on removal |
| 0.1.1 | 2026-08-12 | show CPU temperature in hover details |
| refresh hover data at the chosen interval | ||
| default to the CPU icon for new installs | ||
| 0.1.0 | 2026-08-12 | first release |
Edit the checkout used by the installed plugin, then validate and reload it:
cd ~/.config/omarchy/plugins/ilyazar.btop
omarchy plugin validate .
omarchy-shell shell rescanPluginsIf a reload still shows an old component, run omarchy restart shell.
MIT