Moba Status Bar
CPU, GPU, memory, disk, and network usage monitor with a compact trend graph in the VS Code status bar.
Keep system resource usage visible at all times without leaving your editor. Moba Status Bar shows live CPU, GPU, memory, disk, and network usage directly in the status bar, with a built-in trend graph and one-click access to top resource-consuming processes.
View on Visual Studio Marketplace
Preview
Why Moba Status Bar?
- Live CPU usage with trend graph directly in the status bar
- GPU usage with multi-GPU tooltip
- Memory usage at a glance
- Disk usage for current workspace
- Network download speed in one compact, stable-width item
- One-click process inspection (CPU & memory)
- Automatic warning highlights when usage is high
- Lightweight and configurable
Quick Start
Install the extension and CPU, GPU, memory, and disk usage will appear automatically in the status bar when supported by your machine and platform. Network monitoring is available, but stays hidden until you enable it in settings.
No setup required. Customize behavior later in Settings if needed.
Features
- CPU usage with trend graph: shows real-time CPU usage with a compact trend graph in the status bar.
- GPU usage in the status bar: shows an automatic GPU summary that prefers discrete GPUs when present, keeps integrated and discrete memory separate, and includes VRAM usage when available. GPU telemetry uses lightweight platform-specific backends, including Linux amdgpu sysfs support when vendor tools are unavailable, and the tooltip groups all detected GPUs by type.
- Memory usage in the status bar: shows used memory and total memory, for example
8.4GB / 16.0GB.
- Workspace disk usage: shows usage for the disk that contains your first workspace folder. If no workspace is open, it uses your home directory.
- Network usage in the status bar: shows live download speed in a compact fixed-width item when enabled. Upload speed is available as an optional setting and stays off by default to keep the status bar narrow.
- Top CPU processes: click the CPU item or run the command to see the top 5 CPU-consuming processes.
- Top memory processes: click the memory item or run the command to see the top 5 memory-consuming processes.
- Warning highlights: CPU, GPU, memory, and disk items can highlight automatically when usage reaches your configured threshold.
- Configurable refresh rate: choose how often enabled monitors update.
Status Bar Items
After installation, the extension starts automatically when VS Code finishes launching.
| Item |
What it shows |
Action |
$(chip) CPU |
Current CPU usage trend and percentage |
Click to show top CPU processes |
$(server) Memory |
Used memory / total memory |
Click to show top memory processes |
$(device-desktop) GPU |
Auto-selected GPU summary usage and VRAM when available; hover to inspect grouped per-GPU details |
Click to configure detected GPUs; hover to inspect grouped per-GPU usage and VRAM data |
$(archive) Disk |
Workspace disk label and usage percentage |
Hover to view target path and usage |
$(arrow-down) Network |
Current fixed-width download speed; hidden by default and optional upload speed can be enabled in settings |
Hover to view network adapter name and description |
GPU monitoring is best-effort and never blocks the rest of the status bar. If GPU telemetry is unsupported, unavailable, times out, or returns invalid data, the GPU item is hidden and CPU, memory, and disk monitoring continue normally.
| Platform |
Backend |
Behavior |
| Windows |
typeperf.exe GPU Engine and GPU Adapter Memory counters by default, optional PowerShell Get-Counter, and registry metadata for names and VRAM totals |
Shows per-GPU utilization and dedicated VRAM when counters are available. If the default Typeperf backend cannot run, the GPU item stays hidden; choose the PowerShell backend only if you accept its higher CPU cost. |
| Linux |
nvidia-smi for NVIDIA GPUs, rocm-smi for AMD ROCm GPUs when installed, or amdgpu sysfs telemetry when the kernel exposes gpu_busy_percent and VRAM counters |
Shows utilization and VRAM from the available backend. Missing tools, missing sysfs counters, driver errors, command timeouts, or parse failures fall back to no GPU item. |
| macOS |
No lightweight built-in GPU telemetry backend |
GPU monitoring falls back to hidden; the extension does not error or stop refreshing other monitors. |
| Other platforms |
None |
GPU monitoring falls back to hidden. |
Network monitoring is intentionally compact and lightweight. It stays hidden by default, samples the most relevant active network interface when enabled, keeps upload speed hidden by default so the status bar stays narrow, and formats the rate display to stay visually stable as values change.
| Platform |
Backend |
Behavior |
| Windows |
PowerShell Get-NetAdapterStatistics |
Shows the busiest active interface, focused on download speed by default. |
| Linux |
/proc/net/dev |
Shows the busiest active interface, focused on download speed by default. |
| macOS |
No lightweight built-in backend yet |
Network monitoring falls back to hidden. |
| Other platforms |
None |
Network monitoring falls back to hidden. |
Commands
Open the Command Palette with Ctrl+Shift+P / Cmd+Shift+P and run:
| Command |
Description |
Moba Status Bar: Show Top CPU Processes |
Shows the top 5 CPU-consuming processes. |
Moba Status Bar: Show Top Memory Processes |
Shows the top 5 memory-consuming processes. |
Moba Status Bar: Configure GPU Display |
Opens a picker for detected GPUs so you can change the GPU summary mode, choose zero or more GPUs, or override a GPU category without typing device names manually. |
Settings
You can configure Moba Status Bar from VS Code settings.
| Setting |
Default |
Description |
mobaStatusBar.cpuEnabled |
true |
Enable CPU monitoring. When disabled, CPU sampling and CPU trend history are not collected. |
mobaStatusBar.cpuWarningThresholdPercent |
90 |
Highlight the CPU item when CPU usage is at or above this percentage. |
mobaStatusBar.showCpuTrendGraph |
true |
Show a compact CPU usage trend graph in the status bar. |
mobaStatusBar.cpuTrendGraphLength |
6 |
Number of samples shown in the CPU trend graph. |
mobaStatusBar.memoryEnabled |
true |
Enable memory monitoring. When disabled, memory usage is not sampled. |
mobaStatusBar.memoryWarningThresholdPercent |
90 |
Highlight the memory item when memory usage is at or above this percentage. |
mobaStatusBar.gpuEnabled |
true |
Enable GPU monitoring. When disabled, GPU sampling is not collected. |
mobaStatusBar.windowsGpuBackend |
typeperf |
Windows GPU sampling backend. typeperf avoids PowerShell CPU spikes but requires typeperf.exe; powershell can be used as an opt-in fallback with higher sampling cost. |
mobaStatusBar.gpuWarningThresholdPercent |
90 |
Highlight the GPU item when GPU usage is at or above this percentage. |
mobaStatusBar.diskEnabled |
true |
Enable disk monitoring. When disabled, disk usage is not sampled. |
mobaStatusBar.diskWarningThresholdPercent |
85 |
Highlight the disk item when disk usage is at or above this percentage. |
mobaStatusBar.networkEnabled |
false |
Enable network monitoring. Disabled by default so the network item stays hidden unless you opt in. |
mobaStatusBar.showNetworkUpload |
false |
Show upload speed alongside download speed in the network item. |
mobaStatusBar.refreshIntervalMs |
1000 |
Enabled monitor refresh interval in milliseconds. Values below 500 are clamped to 500. |
mobaStatusBar.alignment |
right |
Place the status bar items on the left or right side of the VS Code status bar. Changes apply immediately without reloading VS Code. |
mobaStatusBar.enabled |
true |
Enable or disable the status bar monitor. |
Example settings.json:
{
"mobaStatusBar.cpuEnabled": true,
"mobaStatusBar.cpuWarningThresholdPercent": 85,
"mobaStatusBar.showCpuTrendGraph": true,
"mobaStatusBar.cpuTrendGraphLength": 6,
"mobaStatusBar.memoryEnabled": true,
"mobaStatusBar.memoryWarningThresholdPercent": 90,
"mobaStatusBar.gpuEnabled": true,
"mobaStatusBar.windowsGpuBackend": "typeperf",
"mobaStatusBar.gpuWarningThresholdPercent": 90,
"mobaStatusBar.diskEnabled": true,
"mobaStatusBar.diskWarningThresholdPercent": 80,
"mobaStatusBar.networkEnabled": false,
"mobaStatusBar.showNetworkUpload": false,
"mobaStatusBar.refreshIntervalMs": 1500,
"mobaStatusBar.alignment": "right",
"mobaStatusBar.enabled": true
}
Tip: configure GPU display behavior from the GPU status bar item itself or run Moba Status Bar: Configure GPU Display, then choose from the detected GPU list. Leaving the selection empty keeps selected mode active and shows Selected GPU unavailable.
The GPU display mode, selected devices, and category overrides are stored internally by the extension instead of appearing as public VS Code settings.
Notes
- Disk usage is cached and refreshed less often than CPU and memory to keep the extension lightweight.
- Network usage is sampled with a lightweight backend and an adaptive cache so it does not spawn a new probe on every status-bar refresh.
- Network monitoring is opt-in and stays hidden until you enable
mobaStatusBar.networkEnabled.
- GPU monitoring uses the lightest available backend for the current platform. On Windows, the default backend is
typeperf; switch mobaStatusBar.windowsGpuBackend to powershell only when Typeperf is unavailable and you accept the higher sampling cost. On Linux, AMD systems can fall back to amdgpu sysfs telemetry when rocm-smi is unavailable. On unsupported systems or when runtime GPU telemetry is unavailable, the GPU item stays hidden.
- Disabled monitors are not sampled in the refresh loop.
- Process lists are collected only when you open them.
- On Windows, process data is collected through PowerShell/CIM. On macOS and Linux, it is collected through
ps.
- GPU monitoring supports multiple GPUs in a single item. The tooltip expands every detected device and degrades gracefully when VRAM totals are unavailable or fresh GPU telemetry cannot be read.
- MobaXterm was a major inspiration for this extension. I have been a long-time fan of their work, and this plugin would not exist in its current form without that influence.
License
MIT
