witr

Why is this running?

📖 Read the story behind witr

Purpose • Installation • ✨ TUI • Flags • Examples • Platforms Goals • Core Concept • Output Behavior • 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.

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.

2.1 Quick Install

Unix (Linux, macOS & FreeBSD)

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

<details> <summary>Script Details</summary>

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

</details>

Windows (PowerShell)

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

<details> <summary>Script Details</summary>

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.

</details>

2.2 Package Managers

<details> <summary>Homebrew (macOS & Linux) <a href="https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/witr"><img src="https://img.shields.io/homebrew/v/witr?style=flat-square" alt="Homebrew"></a></summary>

You can install witr using Homebrew on macOS or Linux:

brew install witr

</details> <details> <summary>Conda (macOS, Linux & Windows) <a href="https://anaconda.org/conda-forge/witr"><img src="https://img.shields.io/conda/vn/conda-forge/witr?style=flat-square" alt="Conda"></a></summary>

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

</details> <details> <summary>Arch Linux (AUR) <a href="https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/witr-bin"><img src="https://img.shields.io/aur/version/witr-bin?style=flat-square" alt="AUR"></a></summary>

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

</details> <details> <summary>Winget (Windows) <a href="https://winstall.app/apps/PranshuParmar.witr"><img src="https://img.shields.io/winget/v/PranshuParmar.witr?style=flat-square" alt="Winget"></a></summary>

You can install witr via winget:

winget install -e --id PranshuParmar.witr

</details> <details> <summary>NPM (Cross-platform) <a href="https://www.npmjs.com/package/@pranshuparmar/witr"><img src="https://img.shields.io/npm/v/@pranshuparmar/witr?label=npm&color=blue&style=flat-square" alt="NPM"></a></summary>

You can install witr using npm:

npm install -g @pranshuparmar/witr

</details> <details> <summary>FreeBSD Ports <a href="https://www.freshports.org/sysutils/witr/"><img src="https://repology.org/badge/version-for-repo/freebsd/witr.svg?style=flat-square" alt="FreeBSD Port"></a></summary>

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

</details> <details> <summary>Chocolatey (Windows) <a href="https://community.chocolatey.org/packages/witr"><img src="https://img.shields.io/chocolatey/v/witr?style=flat-square" alt="Chocolatey"></a></summary>

You can install witr using Chocolatey:

choco install witr

</details> <details> <summary>Scoop (Windows) <a href="https://scoop.sh/#/apps?q=witr"><img src="https://img.shields.io/scoop/v/witr?bucket=main&style=flat-square" alt="Scoop"></a></summary>

You can install witr using Scoop:

scoop install main/witr

</details> <details> <summary>AOSC OS <a href="https://packages.aosc.io/packages/witr"><img src="https://repology.org/badge/version-for-repo/aosc/witr.svg?style=flat-square" alt="AOSC OS"></a></summary>

You can install witr from the AOSC OS repository:

oma install witr

</details> <details> <summary>GNU Guix <a href="https://packages.guix.gnu.org/packages/witr/"><img src="https://repology.org/badge/version-for-repo/gnuguix/witr.svg?style=flat-square" alt="GNU Guix"></a></summary>

You can install witr from the GNU Guix repository:

guix install witr

</details> <details> <summary>Uniget (Linux) <a href="https://github.com/uniget-org/tools/tree/main/tools/witr"><img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/dynamic/yaml?url=https%3A%2F%2Fraw.githubusercontent.com%2Funiget-org%2Ftools%2Fmain%2Ftools%2Fwitr%2Fmanifest.yaml&query=%24.version&label=uniget&style=flat-square&color=blue" alt="Uniget"></a></summary>

You can install witr using uniget:

uniget install witr

</details> <details> <summary>Aqua (macOS, Linux & Windows) <a href="https://github.com/aquaproj/aqua-registry/blob/main/pkgs/pranshuparmar/witr"><img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/dynamic/yaml?url=https%3A%2F%2Fraw.githubusercontent.com%2Faquaproj%2Faqua-registry%2Fmain%2Fpkgs%2Fpranshuparmar%2Fwitr%2Fpkg.yaml&query=%24.packages%5B0%5D.name&label=aqua&style=flat-square&color=blue" alt="Aqua"></a></summary>

You can install witr using aqua:

# Add package
aqua g -i pranshuparmar/witr

# Install package
aqua i pranshuparmar/witr

</details> <details> <summary>Brioche (Linux) <a href="https://github.com/brioche-dev/brioche-packages/tree/main/packages/witr"><img src="https://img.shields.io/static/v1?label=brioche&message=v0.3.0&color=blue&style=flat-square" alt="Brioche"></a></summary>

You can install witr using brioche:

brioche install -r witr

</details> <details> <summary>Prebuilt Packages (deb, rpm, apk)</summary>

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

Witr

Install / Use

README