Catfood =^,^=

A modular utility suite for system management, built with Rust and Ratatui.

Usage

System Bar

Run the system bar:

Top of screen:

kitten panel catfood bar

Bottom of screen:

kitten panel --edge=bottom catfood bar

Other Commands

catfood bar                    # Run the system bar (spawns in kitten panel)
catfood bar --no-kitten         # Run the system bar directly in current terminal
catfood menu                   # Run menu system (coming soon)
catfood notifications             # Run notification system (coming soon)

Direct Binary Usage

Both catfood bar and catfood-bar support the same flags:

catfood-bar                    # Run in kitten panel (default)
catfood-bar --no-kitten         # Run directly in current terminal

Installation

From crates.io

# Install the complete catfood suite
cargo install catfood-bar
cargo install catfood

# Install just the bar component (standalone)
cargo install catfood-bar

Note: catfood bar requires catfood-bar to be installed separately. This allows standalone installation of individual components while maintaining the full suite functionality.

From Source

# Build and install all utilities
cargo install --path .

# Or build and run locally
cargo run --release -- bar

Configuration

catfood supports live configuration via ~/.config/catfood/bar.json. The first time you run the application, a default configuration file will be created.

Hot-Reload

Configuration changes are automatically detected and applied without restarting the application. Simply edit your bar.json file and the bar layout will update in real-time!

Error Logging

All errors are logged to ~/.local/share/catfood/logs/bar.log in ISO format:

2025-12-21T03:45:12Z [ERROR] [COMPONENT_WORKSPACES] Error: Failed to get workspaces
2025-12-21T03:45:13Z [ERROR] [CONFIG] Failed to reload configuration: ...
2025-12-21T03:45:14Z [ERROR] [FILE_WATCHER] Failed to create file watcher: ...

The log file keeps only the last 1000 lines.

See the catfood-bar README for detailed configuration options and examples.

Release Process

This project uses automated releases triggered by git tags:

Making a Release

1. Update Version (using conventional commits):

   # Bump version and update workspace
   cargo release patch  # or minor/major

2. Create Tag:

   # Tag the release (must be on main branch)
   git tag v0.1.1
   git push --tags

3. Automatic Release:

   • GitHub Actions builds and tests on all platforms
   • Binaries are compiled for Linux, macOS, and Windows
   • Workspace is published to crates.io concurrently
   • GitHub Release is created with binaries and changelog

Development Workflow

Use conventional commit messages for automatic changelog generation:

• feat: add new weather component → New features
• fix: memory leak in CPU monitoring → Bug fixes
• docs: update configuration examples → Documentation
• refactor: improve component performance → Code improvements

Release Types

• Patch (0.1.1): Bug fixes, documentation updates
• Minor (0.2.0): New features, significant enhancements
• Major (1.0.0): Breaking changes, API changes

License

Copyright (c) Thom Bruce thom@thombruce.com

This project is licensed under the MIT license (LICENSE or http://opensource.org/licenses/MIT)