busq

busq (busque, Portuguese for “search”) is a tiny, pane-aware system-info readout for terminals. It prints the shortest useful summary of a machine that still fits in a small pane.

The project is early-stage. macOS and Linux are the primary targets; the current implementation is a single-shot readout with plain-text output, opt-in icons and logo, and width-aware rendering.

Build and run

Requires a current stable Rust toolchain.

cargo run --release
cargo test --release
cargo install --path .

Homebrew can install the tagged public release through a tap:

brew tap matheuseabra/busq https://github.com/matheuseabra/busq.git
brew install matheuseabra/busq/busq

Useful flags:

--help                 Show usage
--version              Show the version
--config PATH          Load optional defaults from a config file
--icons on|off|nerd    Select portable Unicode, no icons (default), or Nerd Font icons
--color-no             Disable color output
--color auto|always|never
                       Select color behavior (never emits ANSI when piped)
--theme subtle|mono    Select the color theme (otherwise detect a terminal hint)
--interactive, -i      Refresh every second; press q to quit (TTY only)
--probe                Dump platform, terminal, row, and error detection
--json                 Emit rows as JSON (feature build only)
--no-term              Omit the uptime row
--no-terminator        Omit the final newline
--verbose              Print fetch failures to stderr
--logo [none|auto|PATH]
                       Show the built-in OS logo, disable it, or load a file

Piped output is plain text and never includes ANSI escapes or the logo. Icons and the built-in OS ASCII logo are also off by default; enable either with --icons on|nerd and --logo.

An optional config file at $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/busq/config (or $HOME/.config/busq/config) accepts color, icons, logo, rows, and theme keys as key = value; command-line flags override its defaults. Use --config PATH to select another file.

Without an explicit theme, a TTY COLORFGBG hint selects subtle for dark ANSI backgrounds (0–6 and 8) or mono for light backgrounds (7 and 15); missing or malformed hints fall back to subtle. Piped output and NO_COLOR remain ANSI-free.

JSON output is feature-gated: build with cargo build --features json before using --json.

tmux and zsh

Install busq so it is on your PATH, then run it in a pane:

tmux split-window -h 'busq --no-term'

For a compact plain-text pane, use:

busq --no-term --no-icons --color never

busq takes one snapshot and exits by default. busq --interactive refreshes the same readout every second; press q to quit.

Project direction

See docs/VISION.md for the product direction and docs/ROADMAP.md for the quality-gated plan. See the user reference for flags, configuration, and layout behavior, and CHANGELOG.md / release guide for releases.

Contributing

Small, focused changes are welcome. Start with CONTRIBUTING.md, run the local checks, and explain platform-specific behavior in the pull request.

License

MIT. See LICENSE.