flash

Flash and conky

conky is a “Light-weight system monitor for X, Wayland, and other things, too”, GPL-3 C++ with Lua configuration, about 8,500 stars and frequent releases (1.25.3 in October 2026). macOS is on its platform list, but the wiki says you “might need to install XQuartz”, there is no Homebrew formula, and reports describe drawing into the X root window, no transparency and one desktop only. Flash’s widgets exist for the people who left conky behind on Linux.

	conky on macOS	Flash widgets
License, price	GPL-3, free	MIT, free
Install	Build from source; XQuartz likely	brew install --cask aymericbeaumet/tap/flash
Definition	Lua config with ${cpu}-style variables and Lua drawing	[widgets.<name>] tables with tmux-format templates
Rendering	X11 window, or console, file and HTTP output	Native click-through layers at desktop level
Data	Built-in variables for CPU, memory, disks, network, battery, processes, and ${exec}	Bundled plugins for the same, named sources and #() jobs
Maintenance	Active, Linux first	1.0.0, October 2026

Where conky is stronger

• Hundreds of variables and Lua drawing: graphs, gauges, images, arbitrary Cairo drawing, and years of themes to copy.
• Linux and BSDs. On a Linux desktop it is the natural tool; Flash does not run there.
• Non-desktop outputs (console, file, HTTP) for scripts.

Where Flash is stronger

• It works on macOS as a native desktop layer: below windows, above the wallpaper, per display, with the notch and Spaces handled by the system.
• One install and one file, no X server.
• Event-driven values from plugins on one scheduler that pauses when the widget is covered or the display sleeps.
• The same template feeds the bar.

Flash features you might like

• The conky migration table in widgets: ${cpu} to #{flash.plugin.cpu.percent}, ${mem} to #{flash.plugin.memory.*}, ${top name 1} to #{flash.plugin.processes.top_cpu}.
• #[meter=N] and #[spark] for bars and graphs.
• [statusbar.sources.<name>] for any command’s output, the ${exec} equivalent.

Moving from conky

conky	Flash
${cpu cpu0}%	#{flash.plugin.cpu.percent}
${cpubar}	#[meter=20]#{flash.plugin.cpu.percent}#[nometer]
${cpugraph}	#[spark]#{flash.plugin.cpu.history}#[nospark]
${memperc}	#{flash.plugin.memory.percent}
${fs_used_perc /}	#{flash.plugin.disks.*} (status plugins)
${battery_percent}	#{flash.plugin.power.*}
${top name 1}	#{flash.plugin.processes.top_cpu}
${exec cmd}	A named source running cmd
${time %H:%M}	%H:%M, expanded by strftime in the template
alignment = 'top_right'	anchor = "top_right"
Lua drawing	Not available

Start from docs/examples/widgets/system-panel.toml.

Checked 2026-10-14 against the conky README and installation wiki.

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