PCPulse

Local-first, privacy-conscious, cross-platform PC diagnostics for humans, scripts, support tools, and developer applications.

PCPulse (by Matthew Para, on PyPI as pcpulse) is an open-source Python library and CLI for collecting useful system diagnostics without requiring a cloud service. It turns local machine information into typed Python objects and stable machine-readable output.

Highlights

• Cross-platform system snapshots
• Swap, battery, network, temperature, and fan information where available
• CPU, memory, disk, OS, architecture, and uptime information
• JSON and Markdown output
• Conservative local health checks with pcpulse doctor
• Versioned snapshot schema
• Privacy-first identity handling
• Python library API for integration into other tools
• No telemetry or mandatory network service
• MIT licensed
• Tests, linting, type checking, CI, security guidance, and contributor documentation

Installation

Install from PyPI:

python -m pip install pcpulse

For development:

git clone https://github.com/matthewpara567/pcpulse.git
cd pcpulse
python -m pip install -e '.[dev]'

Quick start

Collect a human-readable snapshot:

pcpulse snapshot

Get JSON:

pcpulse snapshot --json

Get Markdown:

pcpulse snapshot --markdown

Run health checks:

pcpulse doctor

Get machine-readable health checks:

pcpulse doctor --json

Identity information is excluded by default. Opt in explicitly:

pcpulse snapshot --include-identity

Options

Health checks and exit codes (useful in scripts and CI):

pcpulse doctor --fail-on warning
pcpulse doctor --warn-mem 80 --error-mem 90 --warn-disk 90 --warn-cpu 75 --warn-swap 40

--fail-on accepts warning, error (default), or never. Threshold flags take a percentage from 0 to 100.

Save a report to a file, or watch it live (Ctrl+C to stop):

pcpulse snapshot --json --output report.json
pcpulse doctor --watch 5

Include the top processes by memory. This is opt-in because process names can be private:

pcpulse snapshot --include-processes --top 10

Python API

from pcpulse import collect_snapshot, run_checks

snapshot = collect_snapshot()
print(snapshot.to_dict())

for check in run_checks(snapshot):
    print(check.status, check.message)

The library is intended to be the stable integration layer. The CLI is an interface over that library.

Privacy

PCPulse is designed around a local-first model:

• No telemetry is required.
• No account is required.
• No cloud backend is required.
• Hostname and username are not collected unless explicitly requested.
• Process names are not collected unless explicitly requested.
• Network data is limited to interface names and byte counters. IP and MAC addresses are never collected.
• Collectors are read-only diagnostics and do not intentionally modify the host.
• Applications should sanitize reports before sharing them externally.

A diagnostic report can still contain machine-specific information such as operating-system details, mount paths, hardware counts, or uptime. Review output before publishing it.

Snapshot schema

Snapshots carry an explicit schema version so consumers can distinguish format changes:

"schema_version": "1.1"

The canonical JSON Schema is stored at:

schemas/snapshot-1.1.schema.json

Consumers should treat schema changes as compatibility-sensitive and avoid assuming that every platform exposes every metric.

Health checks

pcpulse doctor performs conservative checks for conditions such as high memory, CPU, swap, and disk usage, high temperatures (where the OS exposes sensors), and a low battery. Checks for hardware a machine doesn't have, such as batteries on desktops, are simply left out.

A check can report:

• ok
• warning
• error
• unknown

Unknown is preferred over inventing a value when the operating system does not expose a metric.

Architecture

PCPulse separates:

1. Collectors — read local system information.
2. Models — provide typed Python representations.
3. Serialization — converts snapshots to JSON or Markdown.
4. Health checks — interprets selected metrics.
5. CLI — provides a user-facing command interface.

This separation makes PCPulse useful as a library without requiring applications to scrape terminal output.

Development

Install development dependencies:

python -m pip install -e '.[dev]'

Run the test suite:

pytest -q

Run linting:

ruff check .

Run type checking:

mypy src

Contributing

Bug fixes, documentation improvements, tests, platform compatibility work, and carefully scoped features are welcome.

Before opening a pull request:

• Keep the change focused.
• Add or update tests where appropriate.
• Document public API or schema changes.
• Consider privacy implications.
• Run the test, lint, and type-check commands.
• Avoid unrelated formatting churn.

See CONTRIBUTING.md for details.

Security

Please do not disclose vulnerabilities in public issues. Follow SECURITY.md for responsible reporting.

Security-sensitive areas include unintended network activity, unsafe parsing, dependency vulnerabilities, command execution, and accidental disclosure of local information.

Project structure

pcpulse/
├── .github/
│   ├── ISSUE_TEMPLATE/
│   └── workflows/
├── docs/
├── examples/
├── schemas/
├── src/
│   └── pcpulse/
├── tests/
├── CHANGELOG.md
├── CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md
├── CONTRIBUTING.md
├── GOVERNANCE.md
├── LICENSE
├── MAINTAINERS.md
├── README.md
├── RELEASING.md
├── SECURITY.md
├── SUPPORT.md
└── pyproject.toml

Design principles

PCPulse follows a few simple principles:

• Local-first: the core collector should work without a cloud service.
• Privacy-first: identity data is opt-in.
• Structured: machine-readable output is a first-class interface.
• Best-effort: unavailable metrics are represented as unavailable.
• Read-only: diagnostics should not silently modify the host.
• Compatibility-conscious: public API and schema changes should be deliberate.
• Small core: features should justify their maintenance cost.

Roadmap

Potential future work includes:

• More detailed platform-specific hardware metrics
• Pluggable collectors
• Richer diagnostic bundles
• More schema validation tooling
• Additional operating-system compatibility tests
• Release provenance and artifact-integrity improvements

Roadmap items are not promises and may change as the project evolves.

License

PCPulse is released under the MIT License. See LICENSE.

Status

PCPulse is currently an early open-source project. APIs and schema details may evolve before the first stable release.