Glances

Glances is a cross-platform host monitoring CLI that can run as a local curses dashboard, a web or API server, or a stdout exporter. It is built for inspecting live system health across CPU, memory, disks, network, processes, containers, and other plugins.

• Watch live host and process health locally, or connect to remote Glances servers for centralized monitoring.
• Export selected metrics as stdout JSON, CSV, or REST responses that can feed scripts, logging, alerts, or follow-up shell steps.
• Expose browser and API views for the same host metrics when you need remote access or lightweight dashboards.

• --stdout-json and the REST API give agents structured telemetry they can poll, diff, and route into later decisions.
• This is much stronger for inspect and verify loops than for change workflows, because Glances reports system state but does not manage services or remediate issues itself.
• MCP support is real but optional; for most shell automation, direct JSON output or HTTP endpoints are the simpler integration surface.

• Base installation is small, but web, export, and MCP features require optional extras such as glances[all] or glances[mcp].
• Available plugins and fields vary by platform and by which optional dependencies are installed for containers, sensors, GPU, SMART, and similar data sources.