helm

A local, OS-agnostic system info dashboard.

helm is a single-binary app for surfacing system information. It runs on Windows and Linux with no admin elevation, no cloud calls, no telemetry.

helm is part of the local76 ecosystem and depends on library for its widgets, design system, sysinfo helpers, and chrome.

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Features

• Live dashboard (default). Ratatui-backed. Rounded borders, mouse-drag text selection, window drag, and an in-app markdown help viewer bound to F1–F7.
• Stdout print mode (--no-live). fastfetch-style one-shot, optimized for shell startup scripts (~/.bashrc, ~/.zshrc, PowerShell profile).
• helm doctor. Built-in diagnostic command: audits registry access, winget's local SQLite state, clipboard access, and the config file.
• Hot-loop caching. Dynamic telemetry is throttled to 1-second refresh. Static assets (ASCII logo, registry themes, dark-mode state) are cached in memory. Zero per-frame FFI/registry reads.
• User-level execution. No admin required. Statically linked local packages (bundled SQLite for winget scans).

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Install

Windows

• Standalone: download helm.exe from the latest release.

Linux

• Debian/Ubuntu: sudo dpkg -i helm.deb (downloaded from the release page)

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Usage

helm                       # live dashboard
helm --no-live             # stdout print, suitable for shell profiles
helm doctor                # run diagnostics
helm --blur-pii            # mask username, hostname, IPs, device name (for screenshots)
helm --accent #00FF00      # override theme accent color
helm --logo-file <path>    # load a custom ASCII art sidebar logo
helm --disable-spec gpu    # hide a single telemetry metric (repeatable)
helm --version             # print version
helm --help                # full help

Full flag list: helm --help.

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Configuration

A YAML config file is auto-generated on first run:

• Windows: %APPDATA%\local76\app\helm\config.yaml
• Linux: ~/.config/local76/app/helm/config.yaml

Toggle display parameters (show_gpus, enable_borderless, accent_color, etc.) directly in the file.

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Build from source

git clone https://github.com/local76/helm.git
cd helm
cargo build --release

The release binary is target/release/helm.exe (Windows) or target/release/helm (Linux).

For full distribution packaging (.deb, asset bundling), see toolkit.

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License

MIT. See LICENSE.md.