Configuration¶

powermonitor works without a config file, but you can create ~/.powermonitor/config.toml to customize the TUI, SQLite database path, CLI defaults, and logging level.

Create a default config¶

powermonitor config init

The command creates a commented config file and refuses to overwrite an existing file.

Show the effective config¶

powermonitor config show

This prints the config file path, whether the file exists, the database path, and the effective values after defaults are applied.

Validate the config file¶

powermonitor config validate

Validation checks TOML syntax, supported sections, supported keys, and value ranges before you launch the TUI.

Config file format¶

# powermonitor configuration file

[tui]
interval = 1.0           # Data collection interval in seconds
stats_limit = 100        # Number of readings for statistics
chart_limit = 60         # Number of readings to display in chart

[database]
path = "~/.powermonitor/powermonitor.db"  # Database file location

[cli]
default_history_limit = 20           # Default limit for history command
default_export_limit = 1000          # Default limit for export command

[logging]
level = "INFO"           # DEBUG, INFO, WARNING, or ERROR

Precedence¶

Configuration priority is:

CLI arguments
~/.powermonitor/config.toml
Built-in defaults

For example, powermonitor --interval 0.5 overrides [tui].interval for that run only.

Common examples¶

Store data in Documents¶

[database]
path = "~/Documents/powermonitor.db"

Collect every two seconds¶

[tui]
interval = 2.0

Keep larger default command windows¶

[cli]
default_history_limit = 100
default_export_limit = 10000

Enable debug logs by default¶

[logging]
level = "DEBUG"

Valid values¶

Setting	Type	Rule
`tui.interval`	number	Must be positive
`tui.stats_limit`	integer	Must be positive
`tui.chart_limit`	integer	Must be positive
`database.path`	string	`~` is expanded
`cli.default_history_limit`	integer	Must be positive
`cli.default_export_limit`	integer	Must be positive
`logging.level`	string	`DEBUG`, `INFO`, `WARNING`, or `ERROR`

Very short intervals below 0.1 seconds are accepted but trigger a performance warning.