Glances is an open-source system cross-platform monitoring tool. It allows real-time monitoring of various aspects of your system such as CPU, memory, disk, network usage etc. It also allows monitoring of running processes, logged in users, temperatures, voltages, fan speeds etc. It also supports container monitoring, it supports different container management systems such as Docker, LXC. The information is presented in an easy to read dashboard and can also be used for remote monitoring of systems via a web interface or command line interface. It is easy to install and use and can be customized to show only the information that you are interested in.
In client/server mode, remote monitoring could be done via terminal, Web interface or RESTful API. Stats can also be exported to files or external time/value databases, CSV or direct output to STDOUT.
AI assistants (Claude, Cursor, …) can query Glances directly through the built-in MCP server (available in Glances 4.5.1 and higher).
Glances is written in Python and uses libraries to grab information from your system. It is based on an open architecture where developers can add new plugins or exports modules.
For the standalone (TUI) mode, just run:
$ glances
For the Web server mode (REST API and WebUI), run:
$ glances -s(-w is an alias of -s) and enter the URL http://localhost:61208 in your favorite web browser.
The server listens on 127.0.0.1 by default. To monitor the machine from another one,
listen on all interfaces with -B 0.0.0.0 (or bind_address in the [outputs]
section of the configuration file) and enter the URL http://<ip>:61208.
In this mode, a HTTP/Restful API is exposed under /api/5, see document RestfulApi for more details.
Use --disable-webui to serve the API without the WebUI.
The server is not protected by default. To protect it with a password, generate a password hash:
$ glances --set-passwordand paste the printed value into the password