witr

Why is this running?

with Interactive TUI Mode ✨

📖 Read the story behind witr

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Purpose • Installation • TUI • Flags • Core Concept • Examples Output Behavior • Platforms • Success Criteria • Sponsors

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1. Purpose

witr exists to answer a single question:

Why is this running?

When something is running on a system, whether it is a process, a service, or something bound to a port, there is always a cause. That cause is often indirect, non-obvious, or spread across multiple layers such as supervisors, containers, services, or shells.

Existing tools (ps, top, lsof, ss, systemctl, docker ps) expose state and metadata. They show what is running, but leave the user to infer why by manually correlating outputs across tools.

witr makes that causality explicit.

It explains where a running thing came from, how it was started, and what chain of systems is responsible for it existing right now, in a single, human-readable output or an interactive TUI dashboard.

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2. Installation

witr is distributed as a single static binary for Linux, macOS, FreeBSD, and Windows.

witr is also independently packaged and maintained across multiple operating systems and ecosystems. An up-to-date overview of packaging status is available on Repology. Please note that community packages may lag GitHub releases due to independent review and validation.

[!TIP] If you use a package manager (Homebrew, Conda, Winget, etc.), we recommend installing via that for easier updates. Otherwise, the install script is the quickest way to get started.

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2.1 Quick Install

Unix (Linux, macOS & FreeBSD)

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/pranshuparmar/witr/main/install.sh | bash

The script will:

• Detect your operating system (linux, darwin or freebsd)
• Detect your CPU architecture (amd64 or arm64)
• Download the latest released binary and man page
• Install it to /usr/local/bin/witr
• Install the man page to /usr/local/share/man/man1/witr.1
• Pass INSTALL_PREFIX to override default install path

Windows (PowerShell)

irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/pranshuparmar/witr/main/install.ps1 | iex

The script will:

• Download the latest release (zip) and verify checksum.
• Extract witr.exe to %LocalAppData%\witr\bin.
• Add the bin directory to your User PATH.

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2.2 Package Managers

You can install witr from the official Debian and Ubuntu repositories (Ubuntu 26.04+, Debian sid and later), as well as derivative distributions like Kali Linux, Devuan, and Raspbian:

sudo apt install witr

Note: The apt-shipped version may lag the latest GitHub release. For the newest features, use the install script or another installation method.

You can install witr using Homebrew on macOS or Linux:

brew install witr

You can install witr using MacPorts on macOS:

sudo port install witr

You can install witr using conda, mamba, or pixi on macOS, Linux, and Windows:

conda install -c conda-forge witr
# alternatively using mamba
mamba install -c conda-forge witr
# alternatively using pixi
pixi global install witr

On Arch Linux and derivatives, install from the AUR package:

yay -S witr-bin
# alternatively using paru
paru -S witr-bin
# or use your preferred AUR helper

You can install witr via winget:

winget install -e --id PranshuParmar.witr

You can install witr using npm:

npm install -g @pranshuparmar/witr

You can install witr on FreeBSD from the FreshPorts port:

pkg install witr
# or
pkg install sysutils/witr

Or build from Ports:

cd /usr/ports/sysutils/witr/
make install clean

You can install witr using Chocolatey:

choco install witr

You can install witr using Scoop:

scoop install main/witr

You can install witr from the AOSC OS repository:

oma install witr

You can install witr from the GNU Guix repository:

guix install witr

You can install witr using uniget:

uniget install witr

You can install witr using aqua:

# Add package
aqua g -i pranshuparmar/witr

# Install package
aqua i pranshuparmar/witr

You can install witr using brioche:

brioche install -r witr

You can install witr using mise:

mise use github:pranshuparmar/witr

witr provides native packages for major Linux distributions. You can download the latest .deb, .rpm, or .apk package from the GitHub releases page.

• Generic download command using curl:

  # Replace <package name with the actual package that you need>
  curl -LO https://github.com/pranshuparmar/witr/releases/latest/download/<package-name>
  

• Debian/Ubuntu (.deb):

  sudo dpkg -i ./witr-*.deb
  # Or, using apt for dependency resolution:
  sudo apt install ./witr-*.deb
  

• Fedora/RHEL/CentOS (.rpm):

  sudo rpm -i ./witr-*.rpm
  

• Alpine Linux (.apk):

  sudo apk add --allow-untrusted ./witr-*.apk
  

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2.3 Source & Manual I