⚡ PowerKit

① Session – Current tmux session name with mode-aware icon (changes on prefix/copy mode)
② Plugins – Modular status indicators with health-based colors (cpu, memory, git, datetime, etc.)
③ Windows – Window list with index icons, names, and state indicators (active, zoomed, activity)

The Ultimate tmux Status Bar Framework

48 Plugins • 43 Themes • Infinite Possibilities

Transform your tmux status bar into a powerful, beautiful, and intelligent command center

Getting Started • Plugins • Themes • Documentation

✨ What Makes PowerKit Special?

🎨 Beautiful by Default

Choose from 43 carefully crafted themes with 71 variants including Catppuccin, Dracula, Monokai, Nord, Tokyo Night, and more. Every theme supports automatic color variants (light/lighter/dark/darker) for perfect contrast.

⚡ Blazingly Fast

Smart multi-layer caching, Stale-While-Revalidate (SWR) lazy loading, and optimized background rendering ensure minimal overhead even with dozens of plugins active. Returns stale data immediately while refreshing in background - never blocks on slow API calls or external commands.

🧩 Truly Modular

51 production-ready plugins covering system monitoring, development tools, productivity, media control, and more. Mix and match to create your perfect setup.

🔧 Extensible Architecture

Contract-based plugin system with strict separation of concerns. Create your own plugins, themes, and helpers with ease.

🚀 Quick Start

Installation with TPM

Add to your ~/.tmux.conf:

# PowerKit plugin
set -g @plugin 'fabioluciano/tmux-powerkit'

# Basic configuration
set -g @powerkit_plugins "datetime,battery,cpu,memory,git,hostname"
set -g @powerkit_theme "catppuccin"
set -g @powerkit_theme_variant "mocha"

# Initialize TPM (keep at bottom)
run '~/.tmux/plugins/tpm/tpm'

Then press prefix + I to install.

Manual Installation

For faster download (~1.5 MB), use shallow clone:

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/fabioluciano/tmux-powerkit.git ~/.tmux/plugins/tmux-powerkit

Add to ~/.tmux.conf:

run-shell ~/.tmux/plugins/tmux-powerkit/tmux-powerkit.tmux

See Installation Guide for more options (tarball, full clone).

Nix/NixOS

Add to flake.nix:

{
  inputs.tmux-powerkit.url = "github:fabioluciano/tmux-powerkit";
}

Add to configuration.nix or home.nix:

programs.tmux = {
  enable = true;
  plugins = [{
    plugin = inputs.tmux-powerkit.packages.${pkgs.system}.default;
    extraConfig = ''
      set -g @powerkit_plugins "datetime,battery,cpu,memory,git"
      set -g @powerkit_theme "catppuccin"
      set -g @powerkit_theme_variant "mocha"
    '';
  }];
};

For non-flake install, add to your configuration.nix or home.nix:

let
  tmux-powerkit = pkgs.callPackage (pkgs.fetchFromGitHub {
    owner = "fabioluciano";
    repo = "tmux-powerkit";
    rev = "main";  # or pin to a specific commit
    sha256 = "";   # nix will provide correct hash on first build
  } + "/default.nix") {};
in {
  programs.tmux = {
    enable = true;
    plugins = [ tmux-powerkit ];
    extraConfig = ''
      set -g @powerkit_plugins "datetime,battery,cpu,memory,git"
      set -g @powerkit_theme "catppuccin"
      set -g @powerkit_theme_variant "mocha"
    '';
  };
}

Your First Customization

# Choose your separator style
set -g @powerkit_separator_style "rounded"  # or normal, flame, pixel, honeycomb

# Enable spacing between elements
set -g @powerkit_elements_spacing "both"

# Customize update interval
set -g @powerkit_status_interval "5"

# Make it transparent
set -g @powerkit_transparent "true"

That's it! Reload tmux and enjoy your new status bar.

🎯 Plugins

📊 System Monitoring (15 plugins)

Monitor every aspect of your system in real-time:

Plugin	Description	Highlights
`battery`	Battery level with charge state	Shows charging status, time remaining, health indicators
`cpu`	CPU usage with per-core support	Thresholds, multi-core detection, platform-specific
`memory`	RAM usage and availability	Multiple formats (percentage, usage, available)
`swap`	Swap memory usage	Cross-platform, threshold alerts, multiple display formats
`disk`	Disk usage by mount point	Configurable thresholds, multiple drives
`loadavg`	System load average	1/5/15 minute averages, per-core normalization
`temperature`	CPU temperature	macOS (osx-cpu-temp), Linux (hwmon)
`fan`	Fan speed monitoring	Dell SMM, ThinkPad, generic hwmon, macOS
`gpu`	GPU utilization	NVIDIA, AMD, Intel, macOS support
`iops`	Disk I/O operations	Read/write operations per second
`brightness`	Screen brightness	Linux only (sysfs, brightnessctl, light, xbacklight)
`uptime`	System uptime	Human-readable format
`hostname`	System hostname	Color-coded by environment
`topproc`	Top CPU process	Process name and usage %, threshold alerts
`sysstatus`	Aggregated system health badge	Combined OK/WARN/CRIT across CPU, memory, disk, temperature

🌐 Network (8 plugins)

Stay connected and informed:

Plugin	Description	Features
`netspeed`	Upload/download speed	Real-time bandwidth monitoring
`wifi`	WiFi SSID + signal strength	Signal quality indicators
`vpn`	VPN connection status	Detects active VPN tunnels
`ping`	Network latency	Configurable host, threshold alerts
`external_ip`	Public IP address	Cached with configurable TTL
`ssh`	SSH session indicator	Shows when connected via SSH
`weather`	Weather from wttr.in	Location-based, customizable format
`connectivity`	Internet connectivity status	Online/offline indicator, configurable endpoint

🎵 Media (6 plugins)

Control your media experience:

Plugin	Description	Platform
`volume`	System volume level	macOS only
`nowplaying`	Current music track	Music.app, Spotify (macOS)
`audiodevices`	Active audio output device	macOS (SwitchAudioSource)
`camera`	Camera usage indicator	macOS (lsof)
`microphone`	Microphone mute status	macOS (osascript)
`bluetooth`	Bluetooth status + devices	macOS (blueutil), Linux (bluetoothctl)

💻 Development (13 plugins)

Supercharge your development workflow:

Plugin	Description	Features
`git`	Git branch + status	Modified files, branch info, repo state
`github`	GitHub notifications	PRs, issues, notifications (gh CLI)
`gitlab`	GitLab merge requests	MRs, todos (glab CLI)
`bitbucket`	Bitbucket pull requests	PR count via API
`jira`	Jira assigned issues	Issue count via API
`kubernetes`	K8s context + namespace	Current context and namespace
`terraform`	Terraform workspace	Active workspace indicator
`cloud`	Cloud provider profile	AWS/Azure/GCP active profile
`cloudstatus`	Cloud service status	Service health monitoring
`yadm`	yadm dotfile status	Modified/untracked dotfiles, ahead/behind counts
`chezmoi`	chezmoi dotfile status	Pending dotfile changes
`packages`	Pending system updates	brew, apt, yum, pacman support
`docker`	Docker or Podman containers	Running, stopped, and unhealthy container counts

⏰ Productivity (6 plugins)

Boost your productivity:

Plugin	Description	Features
`datetime`	Date and time	15 format presets, fully customizable
`timezones`	Multiple timezones	Display multiple zones simultaneously
`pomodoro`	Pomodoro timer	Work/break phases, keybindings
`bitwarden`	Bitwarden vault status	Lock status, quick access
`smartkey`	Custom environment variables	Display any env var or command output
`appearance`	macOS appearance	Light/dark mode and theme switching

💰 Financial (2 plugins)

Track your investments:

Plugin	Description	Source
`crypto`	Cryptocurrency prices	CoinGecko API
`stocks`	Stock prices	Yahoo Finance API

🎨 Themes

PowerKit comes with 43 beautiful themes and 71 variants, each carefully designed for optimal readability and aesthetics

Popular Themes

Tokyo Night night • storm • day	Catppuccin mocha • macchiato • frappe • latte	Dracula dark
Nord dark	Gruvbox dark • light	Rose Pine main • moon • dawn
Material default • ocean • palenight • lighter	Solarized dark • light	GitHub dark • light
Ayu dark • mirage • light	Night Owl default • light	Moonlight default

Plus Monokai, Cobalt2, SynthWave '84, Horizon, Iceberg, Snazzy, Spacegray, Molokai, Vesper, Poimandres, Flexoki, Slack, and more!

Theme Features

✅ Automatic color variants - Each base color generates 6 variants (light/lighter/lightest/dark/darker/darkest)
✅ Smart health mapping - Plugin states automatically map to theme colors
✅ Transparent mode - All themes support transparent backgrounds
✅ Consistent contrast - Automated foreground color selection for perfect readability

Quick Theme Switch

# Tokyo Night - Night variant
set -g @powerkit_theme "tokyo-night"
set -g @powerkit_theme_variant "night"

# Catppuccin - Mocha variant
set -g @powerkit_theme "catppuccin"
set -g @powerkit_theme_variant "mocha"

# Dracula
set -g @powerkit_theme "dracula"
set -g @powerkit_theme_variant "dark"

See all themes: Themes Documentation

🎭 Separator Styles

Choose from 9 beautiful separator styles to customize your status bar appearance:

Style	Right	Left	Unicode
normal			E0B0/E0B2
rounded			E0B4/E0B6
slant			E0B8/E0BA
slantup			E0BC/E0BE
trapezoid			E0C8/E0CA
flame			E0C0/E0C2
pixel			E0C4/E0C6
honeycomb			E0CC/E0CD
none	-	-	-

# Configure separator style
set -g @powerkit_separator_style "rounded"

# Different style for edge separators
set -g @powerkit_edge_separator_style "flame"

# Add spacing between elements
set -g @powerkit_elements_spacing "both"  # false, true, both, windows, plugins

⚙️ Advanced Configuration

Session Customization

You can customize the padding around the session text.

# Disable the padding space around the session name
set -g @powerkit_session_padding "false"

Window Customization

You can customize the text color of the active and inactive windows, as well as the padding around the window index. By default, text colors are automatically calculated based on the window's background color, and the index padding is enabled.

# Override automatic text color calculation
set -g @powerkit_active_window_fg "#ffffff"
set -g @powerkit_inactive_window_fg "#c0caf5"

# Disable the padding space around the window index number
set -g @powerkit_window_index_padding "false"

Plugin Customization

You can control the edge separator background color when a plugin's icon is hidden (e.g. set to 'none'). By default, it uses the hidden icon's background color.

# Set the edge separator background to match the text content block instead of the icon block when the icon is hidden
set -g @powerkit_plugin_no_icon_bg_style "content" # default is "icon"

Plugin-Specific Options

Every plugin is highly customizable. Example with the battery plugin:

# Battery plugin options
set -g @powerkit_plugin_battery_warning_threshold "30"
set -g @powerkit_plugin_battery_critical_threshold "15"
set -g @powerkit_plugin_battery_icon ""
set -g @powerkit_plugin_battery_icon_warning "󰂃"
set -g @powerkit_plugin_battery_icon_charging "󰂄"
set -g @powerkit_plugin_battery_cache_ttl "5"
set -g @powerkit_plugin_battery_show_only_on_threshold "false"

CPU Plugin with Thresholds

set -g @powerkit_plugin_cpu_warning_threshold "70"
set -g @powerkit_plugin_cpu_critical_threshold "90"
set -g @powerkit_plugin_cpu_show_cores "false"
set -g @powerkit_plugin_cpu_icon ""

Git Plugin

set -g @powerkit_plugin_git_icon "" # Default git icon
set -g @powerkit_plugin_git_icon_modified "" # Icon used when repository has modifications
set -g @powerkit_plugin_git_show_branch "true"
set -g @powerkit_plugin_git_show_files "true"
set -g @powerkit_plugin_git_max_length "30"

Network Speed

set -g @powerkit_plugin_netspeed_interface "auto"  # or eth0, wlan0, etc.
set -g @powerkit_plugin_netspeed_icon_up "󰕒"
set -g @powerkit_plugin_netspeed_icon_down "󰇚"
set -g @powerkit_plugin_netspeed_format "both"  # up, down, both

DateTime Formats

Choose from 15 preset formats or create your own:

set -g @powerkit_plugin_datetime_format "preset_1"  # %Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S
set -g @powerkit_plugin_datetime_format "preset_7"  # %I:%M %p
set -g @powerkit_plugin_datetime_format "preset_12" # %a %b %d
# Or custom format
set -g @powerkit_plugin_datetime_format "%Y-%m-%d %A"

🎮 Keybindings

PowerKit includes powerful interactive helpers with keybindings:

# Built-in keybindings (all customizable)
set -g @powerkit_options_key "C-e"          # View all options
set -g @powerkit_keybindings_key "C-y"      # View keybindings
set -g @powerkit_theme_selector_key "C-r"   # Theme selector
set -g @powerkit_cache_clear_key "C-d"      # Clear cache

# Plugin-specific keybindings
set -g @powerkit_plugin_bitwarden_keybinding_unlock "C-b u"
set -g @powerkit_plugin_bitwarden_keybinding_lock "C-b l"
set -g @powerkit_plugin_pomodoro_keybinding_start "C-p s"
set -g @powerkit_plugin_pomodoro_keybinding_pause "C-p p"

Interactive Helpers

PowerKit includes several interactive helpers:

Options Viewer (prefix + C-e) - Browse all configuration options
Keybindings Viewer (prefix + C-y) - View all active keybindings
Theme Selector (prefix + C-r) - Interactively switch themes
Cache Manager (prefix + C-d) - Clear plugin cache
Bitwarden Selector - Quick password access
Audio Device Selector - Switch audio outputs

🏗️ Architecture

PowerKit uses a contract-based architecture with strict separation of concerns:

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                         POWERKIT CORE                            │
│  Lifecycle • Cache • Options • Datastore • Theme Loader         │
└───────┬──────────────────────┬──────────────────┬───────────────┘
        │                      │                  │
        ▼                      ▼                  ▼
┌──────────────┐      ┌─────────────────┐   ┌─────────────┐
│   PLUGINS    │      │    RENDERER     │   │   THEMES    │
├──────────────┤      ├─────────────────┤   ├─────────────┤
│ • Data       │─────▶│ • Colors        │◀──│ • Color     │
│ • State      │      │ • Icons         │   │   Palette   │
│ • Health     │      │ • Separators    │   │             │
│ • Context    │      │ • Formatting    │   │             │
└──────────────┘      └─────────────────┘   └─────────────┘

Key Principles

Plugins provide data and semantics (state, health, context)
Renderer handles all UI decisions (colors, icons, formatting)
Themes define color palettes only
Core orchestrates the lifecycle and manages caching

This architecture ensures:

✅ Plugins never decide colors or formatting
✅ Themes are purely declarative
✅ Rendering is consistent across all plugins
✅ Easy to extend without breaking existing code

Learn more: Architecture Documentation

📐 Layout Options

Single vs Double Layout

# Single line layout (default)
set -g @powerkit_bar_layout "single"

# Double line layout (session on top, plugins on bottom)
set -g @powerkit_bar_layout "double"

Element Order and Centered Layout

PowerKit supports flexible element ordering with automatic centered layout:

# 2-element orders (auto-expanded with windows):
set -g @powerkit_status_order "session,plugins"  # Standard: session+windows LEFT, plugins RIGHT
set -g @powerkit_status_order "plugins,session"  # Inverted: plugins LEFT, windows+session RIGHT

# 3-element orders enable CENTERED layout:
set -g @powerkit_status_order "session,windows,plugins"  # session LEFT, windows CENTER, plugins RIGHT
set -g @powerkit_status_order "plugins,windows,session"  # plugins LEFT, windows CENTER, session RIGHT
set -g @powerkit_status_order "session,plugins,windows"  # session LEFT, plugins CENTER, windows RIGHT

Any element in the middle position will be automatically centered in the status bar.

Lazy Loading (SWR Caching)

PowerKit uses Stale-While-Revalidate caching for optimal performance:

# Enable lazy loading (default: true)
set -g @powerkit_lazy_loading "true"

# Stale multiplier: how many times the TTL before data is considered "too old"
# Example: TTL=300s, multiplier=3 → data up to 900s old can be returned while refreshing
set -g @powerkit_stale_multiplier "3"

How it works:

Fresh data (within TTL): Returns cached data immediately
Stale data (within TTL × multiplier): Returns stale data immediately, refreshes in background
Too old data (beyond TTL × multiplier): Blocks and refreshes synchronously

This ensures your status bar never hangs waiting for slow API calls or network requests.

Plugin Groups

Group related plugins together using the group(...) syntax for visual cohesion:

# Group related plugins with shared separator backgrounds
set -g @powerkit_plugins "group(cpu,memory,loadavg),group(git,github),datetime"

Groups are assigned colors from the @powerkit_plugin_group_colors palette in order:

# Customize group color palette (comma-separated theme colors or hex values)
set -g @powerkit_plugin_group_colors "info-base-darker,window-active-base-darker,ok-base-darker,warning-base-darker,error-base-darker,disabled-base"

By default, group colors only affect the separator backgrounds between plugins in the same group. Each plugin still uses its own health-based colors for the segment itself.

To create a fully unified visual band where all plugins in a group share the same background color, enable group coloring:

# Apply group palette colors to plugin segment backgrounds (default: false)
set -g @powerkit_plugin_group_coloring "true"

When group coloring is enabled:

Plugin segment backgrounds use the group's palette color instead of health-based colors
Health feedback is preserved through bold text styling (warning/error states render bold)
Special states (inactive, failed) still use their semantic colors and are not overridden
Transparent mode (@powerkit_transparent "true") disables group coloring and falls back to health-based colors
Stale data applies a darkened variant of the group color, consistent with the normal stale behavior

🔧 Creating Your Own Plugin

PowerKit makes it easy to create custom plugins. Here's a minimal example:

#!/usr/bin/env bash
POWERKIT_ROOT="${POWERKIT_ROOT:-$(cd "$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")/../.." && pwd)}"
. "${POWERKIT_ROOT}/src/contract/plugin_contract.sh"

plugin_get_metadata() {
    metadata_set "id" "my_plugin"
    metadata_set "name" "My Plugin"
    metadata_set "description" "What this plugin does"
}

plugin_declare_options() {
    declare_option "icon" "icon" "󰀀" "Plugin icon"
    declare_option "cache_ttl" "number" "60" "Cache duration"
}

plugin_collect() {
    # Collect your data
    local value="42"
    plugin_data_set "value" "$value"
}

plugin_get_content_type() { printf 'dynamic'; }
plugin_get_presence() { printf 'always'; }
plugin_get_state() { printf 'active'; }
plugin_get_health() { printf 'ok'; }

plugin_render() {
    local value=$(plugin_data_get "value")
    printf '%s' "$value"
}

plugin_get_icon() {
    printf '%s' "$(get_option 'icon')"
}

Learn more: Developing Plugins

🎨 Creating Your Own Theme

Themes are simple color definitions:

#!/usr/bin/env bash
declare -A THEME_COLORS=(
    # Status bar
    [statusbar-bg]="#1a1b26"
    [statusbar-fg]="#c0caf5"

    # Session
    [session-bg]="#7aa2f7"
    [session-fg]="#1a1b26"

    # Windows (variants auto-generated)
    [window-active-base]="#7aa2f7"
    [window-inactive-base]="#3b4261"

    # Health states (variants auto-generated)
    [ok-base]="#9ece6a"
    [info-base]="#7dcfff"
    [warning-base]="#e0af68"
    [error-base]="#f7768e"
)

The system automatically generates 6 color variants (light/lighter/lightest/dark/darker/darkest) for each base color!

Learn more: Developing Themes

📚 Complete Documentation

Resource	Description
Installation Guide	Detailed setup instructions
Quick Start	Get started in 5 minutes
Configuration Reference	All configuration options explained
Plugin Documentation	Detailed docs for all available plugins
Theme Gallery	Preview all themes and variants
Developing Plugins	Create your own plugins
Developing Themes	Create custom themes
Architecture	Understanding the contract system
API Reference	Core APIs and utilities

📋 Complete Options Reference

A fully documented configuration file with all available options is maintained at:

wiki/assets/powerkit-options.conf

📥 Download powerkit-options.conf

Use this file as a reference or copy the options you need to your ~/.tmux.conf. Every option includes descriptions, valid values, and defaults.

🚦 Requirements

tmux 3.0 or higher
Bash 5.0 or higher (5.1+ recommended for optimal performance)
TPM (Tmux Plugin Manager)
Nerd Font (recommended for icons)

Note for macOS users: macOS ships with Bash 3.x. Install a modern version with brew install bash.

Bash Version Features Used

Version	Features Used
5.0+	`$EPOCHSECONDS`, `$EPOCHREALTIME`, `${var,,}`, `${var^^}`
5.1+	`assoc_expand_once` (performance optimization)

Platform Support

✅ macOS (Intel & Apple Silicon)
✅ Linux (Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, Arch, and more)
✅ FreeBSD (limited testing)
✅ WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux)

💡 Example Configurations

Minimal Setup

set -g @powerkit_plugins "datetime,hostname"
set -g @powerkit_theme "tokyo-night"
set -g @powerkit_separator_style "rounded"

Developer Setup

set -g @powerkit_plugins "git,github,kubernetes,terraform,cpu,memory,datetime"
set -g @powerkit_theme "dracula"
set -g @powerkit_plugin_git_show_files "true"
set -g @powerkit_plugin_kubernetes_show_namespace "true"

System Monitor Setup

set -g @powerkit_plugins "cpu,memory,disk,loadavg,temperature,fan,netspeed,datetime"
set -g @powerkit_theme "gruvbox"
set -g @powerkit_theme_variant "dark"
set -g @powerkit_plugin_cpu_show_cores "true"
set -g @powerkit_plugin_netspeed_format "both"

Productivity Setup

set -g @powerkit_plugins "pomodoro,datetime,timezones,bitwarden,git,battery"
set -g @powerkit_theme "catppuccin"
set -g @powerkit_theme_variant "mocha"
set -g @powerkit_plugin_timezones_zones "UTC,America/New_York,Europe/London"

🤝 Contributing

We welcome contributions! Here's how you can help:

Ways to Contribute

🐛 Report bugs - Open an issue with details
💡 Suggest features - Share your ideas
📝 Improve documentation - Fix typos, add examples
🔌 Create plugins - Share your custom plugins
🎨 Design themes - Create beautiful color schemes
💻 Submit PRs - Fix bugs or add features

Development Workflow

Fork the repository
Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature)
Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add amazing feature')
Push to the branch (git push origin feature/amazing-feature)
Open a Pull Request

Development Tools

# Validate syntax
bash -n src/**/*.sh

# Run shellcheck
shellcheck src/**/*.sh

# Test render
POWERKIT_ROOT="$(pwd)" ./bin/powerkit-render

# Test specific plugin
POWERKIT_ROOT="$(pwd)" ./bin/powerkit-plugin battery

See: Development Guide

🏆 Credits & Acknowledgments

PowerKit is built on the shoulders of giants:

Powerline - Original inspiration
tmux - The best terminal multiplexer
TPM - Tmux Plugin Manager
All theme creators for their beautiful color schemes
The tmux community for continuous feedback and support

📄 License

PowerKit is released under the MIT License.

See LICENSE for full details.

📬 Support & Community

🐛 Bug Reports: GitHub Issues
📖 Documentation: Wiki
⭐ Show Support: Star this repository!

Made with ❤️ by @fabioluciano

If PowerKit improves your tmux experience, please consider starring the repo! ⭐

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