# I Built a Modular Linux System Monitor in Python

I spend a lot of time working in Linux terminals.

Eventually, I wanted a small system-monitoring tool that I could understand completely and modify myself.

So I built one.

It's called Terminal System Analyzer.

The idea is simple:

Give me useful information about my Linux machine directly in the terminal.

What it monitors

The project currently focuses on:

• CPU usage
• Memory
• Swap
• Disk information
• Network information
• Running processes

It also shows the processes consuming the most CPU.

The project uses Python libraries such as psutil for system information and rich for the terminal interface.

The architecture

I wanted the project to stay modular instead of putting everything into one Python file.

The structure is:

terminal-system-analyzer/
│
├── analyzer/
│   ├── cpu.py
│   ├── memory.py
│   ├── disk.py
│   ├── network.py
│   ├── processes.py
│   └── dashboard.py
│
├── main.py
└── requirements.txt

Each module has a specific responsibility.

For example:

cpu.py
   ↓
CPU information

memory.py
   ↓
Memory information

network.py
   ↓
Network information

processes.py
   ↓
Process information

dashboard.py
   ↓
Terminal presentation

This makes the project easier to extend.

Why build another system monitor?

Linux already has excellent tools.

top, htop, free, ps, df, and many others already provide system information.

So this wasn't about replacing those tools.

It was about building something small enough that I could understand the entire codebase.

That makes it useful as a learning project.

What I learned

This project helped me practice several things that are easy to overlook when learning Python:

• Organizing a project into modules
• Separating data collection from presentation
• Working with system APIs
• Building terminal interfaces
• Handling process information
• Designing a small CLI application

The project also gave me a foundation for experimenting with more advanced system-monitoring features.

What's next?

There are plenty of directions I could take it:

• Better terminal dashboards
• More detailed process information
• Network monitoring
• Disk health information
• Historical statistics
• Alerts
• Exporting data
• Configuration files

Eventually, I'd also like to connect ideas from this project with my other Linux and cybersecurity projects.

For now, the goal is simple:

Build small tools. Understand how they work. Then make them better.