CuteMonitor — UPS Status

Live UPS status on your Noctalia desktop: battery, load, runtime, line quality and power events, read from CyberPower's pwrstat or from NUT. Comes as a desktop widget, a bar item and a detail panel that all share one background service.

Plugin

Field	Value
ID	cutecaption/cutemonitor-ups
Entries	Desktop widget: desktop; bar widget: bar; panel: details; service: service

Requirements

One data source, chosen automatically or in the plugin settings:

• pwrstat — CyberPower PowerPanel for Linux, with its pwrstatd daemon running and the UPS connected by USB. Your user must be allowed to run pwrstat; Arch's AUR powerpanel package grants that to the power group.
• upsc — the NUT (Network UPS Tools) client, reading a NUT server on this machine or on another one (name@host).

upscmd (part of NUT) is only used for the panel's actions when the data source is NUT; it asks for your NUT username and password in a terminal.

Usage

Desktop widget. Open the desktop editor (Settings → Desktop → Widget Editor → Toggle Editor, or noctalia msg desktop-widgets-edit), pick CuteMonitor — UPS Status in the widget dropdown and add it. Choose a layout with Display:

• Status — one or two big numbers with the power-source icon and a detail line.
• Graph — two history lines (default load and input voltage), like System Monitor.
• Gauges — up to three bars, as rows, columns or pills.
• Readout — the pwrstat -status list, one switch per row.

Each layout shows only its own settings in the editor's inspector. Move, resize, rotate and the Background block work as for every built-in widget.

Bar item. Add CuteMonitor — UPS Status from the bar's Add-widget picker. Left click opens the detail panel; middle click opens the item's settings. During an outage the label adds the remaining runtime, and the colors switch to the Warning/Alert colors.

Detail panel. Opens from the bar item, or with:

noctalia msg panel-toggle cutecaption/cutemonitor-ups:details

It shows the big numbers, a live graph (2 min / 10 min / 1 h, hover for exact values), the full readout, the shutdown policy, the event log, and actions: Self-test (asks first), Mute and Alarm on/off. Every section can be switched off in the plugin settings.

Settings

Plugin-wide (Settings → Plugins → gear)

Setting	Type	Default	Description
data_source	select	auto	auto tries pwrstat, then NUT on this machine; or force pwrstat / nut.
nut_ups	string	empty	Empty uses the first UPS on this machine; name@host[:port] reads another machine.
poll_interval	select	1	Seconds between readings: 1, 2, 5, 10, 30 or 60.
high_load	int	80	Load percentage at which load values use the Alert color.
date_style	select	short	short (Oct 5, 08:22, using your time format), pwrstat (2026/10/05 08:22:32) or relative (6 days ago).
log_outages	bool	true	Log power failures, restorations (with duration), low battery, overload, faults.
log_communication	bool	false	Log lost and restored contact with the UPS or NUT server.
log_self_test	bool	false	Log self-test results.
log_voltage	bool	true	Log Boost/Buck (automatic voltage regulation) switching on and off.
log_line_events	bool	true	Log over/under voltage and blackouts as pwrstat reports them, including the most recent one missed while Noctalia wasn't running.

Desktop widget (desktop editor inspector)

Setting	Type	Default	Description
display	select	status	Layout: status, graph, gauges, readout.
big1, big2	select	battery_pct, load_pct	Status: the big number(s); big2 can be none.
number_style	select	side_by_side	Status: two equal numbers, or main_secondary.
detail1–detail3	select	source, runtime, load_w	Status: the detail line's items.
line1, line2	select	load_w, input_v	Graph: the two lines; line2 can be none.
time_span	select	2m	Graph: 2m, 10m or 1h of history (kept in memory only).
show_label	bool	true	Graph: current values under the graph.
gauge_layout	select	rows	Gauges: rows, columns or pills.
bar1–bar3	select	battery_pct, load_w, runtime	Gauges: the bars; each can be none. Runtime fills against the runtime reported at the last full charge.
status_line	bool	true	Gauges: state and power source above the bars.
row_*	bool	current-status rows on	Readout: rows in pwrstat order, switched in the pairs pwrstat lists together (Model & Firmware, Ratings, State & Power Source, Voltages, Frequencies, Battery & Runtime) or alone (Load, Line Interaction, Test Result, Last Power Event); Model & Firmware and Ratings start off. Rows the UPS doesn't report are left out.
extra_nut	bool	false	Readout: NUT-only battery voltage, charging state, beeper and transfer range.
color, color2, color3	color	primary, secondary, on_surface_variant	Colors for the first, second and third stat. Readout uses only color2, for its State row; color3 is for Gauges.
warning_color, alert_color	color	tertiary, error	On battery; low battery, overload, fault and high load.

Stats available in the dropdowns: battery %, load %, load (W), runtime, input/output voltage, input/output frequency.

Bar item

Setting	Type	Default	Description
display_mode	select	icon	icon (power source), battery (drawn battery) or none.
battery_color	color	on_surface	Drawn battery only: its outline and charge. Outages and alerts use the Warning/Alert colors.
show_label	bool	true	Show values next to the icon.
label_content	select	battery_load	battery_load, battery, load, load_w or runtime.
only_on_battery	bool	false	Hide the item unless the UPS is running on battery.
warning_color, alert_color	color	tertiary, error	Colors for outage and alert states.

Panel (Settings → Plugins → gear)

Setting	Type	Default	Description
panel_hero	bool	true	Big numbers.
panel_graph	bool	true	Live graph.
panel_readout	bool	true	Full readout.
panel_protection	bool	false	Shutdown policy and alarm state.
panel_events	bool	false	Event log.
panel_actions	bool	true	Self-test, Mute and Alarm buttons.

IPC

noctalia msg plugin cutecaption/cutemonitor-ups:service all simulate on_battery

simulate previews a state without touching the UPS: on_battery, low_battery, overload, lost, no_ups, or off to return to live data. It only changes what is displayed — nothing is logged or saved — and works on a machine without a UPS.

noctalia msg plugin cutecaption/cutemonitor-ups:service all refresh

Reads the UPS now (or looks for one again).

noctalia msg plugin cutecaption/cutemonitor-ups:service all dump

Writes the service's current state to Noctalia's log, for troubleshooting.

Notes

• Commands run: pwrstat -status every poll and pwrstat -config every 10 minutes; or upsc <ups> every poll and upsc -l while looking for a UPS. Panel actions run pwrstat -test, pwrstat -mute and pwrstat -alarm on|off, or upscmd in a terminal for NUT. No shell is involved except that terminal command, and NUT UPS names are validated before use.
• Files written: events.json (the newest 200 log entries) and state.json (the last self-test, the last full-charge runtime and the newest pwrstat event seen) in the plugin's data directory. Graph history stays in memory.
• Network: none, except the NUT client talking to the configured NUT server.
• States: values dim with "Lost communication · last data N s ago" when the data source reports lost communication or three readings in a row fail; with no UPS at all the widget says why (for example pwrstat isn't installed).
• Self-test briefly switches the UPS to battery. The plugin never changes your shutdown policy (pwrstatd or NUT's upsmon); the panel only displays it.