ChargeMonitor

ChargeMonitor is a lightweight macOS menu‑bar utility that presents real‑time battery information beyond the built‑in status indicators. It displays a compact percentage in the menu bar and, when opened, shows details such as power source and adapter name, charging state, estimated time to full, charging power in watts, fast‑charging status, current power consumption, time remaining to discharge, and battery cycle count. The app also highlights “Using Significant Energy” applications by applying a heuristic that evaluates CPU time, wake‑ups, and disk activity.

The tool is designed for macOS users who want quick insight into what is draining their battery and how charging is progressing without leaving the desktop. Quick actions in the pop‑over let users open the project’s GitHub page, check for updates, launch system Battery Settings, or quit the app. Installation is available via Homebrew or by downloading a release from GitHub, and the application runs as an accessory without a Dock icon or extra permissions.

ChargeMonitor reads data from the system power sources and smart battery interface, and its “significant energy” list is generated locally using an exponential moving average of process metrics. No data is transmitted to external servers; update checks query only the public GitHub Releases API. The project is open source, free to use, and welcomes contributions for bug fixes, heuristic tuning, and UI improvements.