usbeehive

Shows your connected USB devices and USB-C charging wattage in the bar, using usbeehive. It also tells you when a cable or charger is the bottleneck.

Plugin

Field	Value
ID	yangkx/usbeehive
Entries	Bar widget: usb; panel: devices; service: monitor

Requirements

• usbeehive on PATH, or set its path in the plugin settings. Install it with cargo install usbeehive, which needs the libudev headers and pkg-config.
• jq on PATH. usbeehive pretty-prints --watch --json across many lines, and jq compacts each snapshot onto one line so the plugin can read the stream line by line.
• Linux only. USB-C wattage needs the kernel to expose USB-C power data (UCSI, TCPM or a platform driver). Machines without USB-C Power Delivery, like most desktops, show only the device list.

Usage

Enable the plugin, then add the usbeehive bar widget from the Add-widget picker, or configure it by hand:

[widget.usb]
type = "yangkx/usbeehive:usb"
# then put "usb" in a [bar.<name>] start/center/end list

The bar widget shows:

• ⚡ 45W while a USB-C port is charging the machine
• ↗ (plus wattage when the kernel reports it) while the machine supplies power over USB-C
• otherwise a USB icon with the number of connected devices (see idle_display)

The icon turns to the tertiary color when usbeehive detects a charging bottleneck. Left click toggles the device panel, right click refreshes, and middle click opens the widget settings.

The devices panel shows a power summary, any charging warnings, and every device. Click a device to expand its details: vendor and product IDs, driver, USB version, link speed, cable e-marker, and the charger's power profiles with the active one marked. You can also toggle it from a keybind:

noctalia msg panel-toggle yangkx/usbeehive:devices

The monitor service runs in the background and needs no setup. It sends a notification when a device is connected or disconnected, and when a new charging bottleneck appears.

Settings

Plugin settings live under Settings → Plugins → usbeehive (the gear).

Setting	Type	Default	Description
usbeehive_path	file	usbeehive	Command name on PATH, or an absolute or ~ path, e.g. ~/.cargo/bin/usbeehive.
poll_interval_s	int	5	Seconds between wattage refreshes while charging (1–60). The watcher only reacts to USB/Type-C hotplug events, so this catches PD renegotiations.
hide_internal	bool	true	Hide devices the kernel marks as fixed: built-in Bluetooth, card readers, internal webcams.
show_hubs	bool	false	List USB hubs in the panel. Hubs never count as devices and never trigger notifications.
notify_hotplug	bool	true	Notify when a USB device is connected or disconnected.
notify_warnings	bool	true	Notify when usbeehive reports a new cable or charger bottleneck.

Bar widget setting, edited with the widget:

Setting	Type	Default	Description
idle_display	select	count	What the widget shows when no USB-C power is flowing: count (icon and device count), icon (icon only) or hidden (hide the widget).

IPC

Force a fresh reading, the same as right-clicking the widget:

noctalia msg plugin yangkx/usbeehive:monitor all refresh

Notes

• Processes: the service runs one long-lived shell pipeline, usbeehive --watch --json | jq -c --unbuffered .. While a port is charging it also runs usbeehive --json every poll_interval_s seconds. The pipeline's wrapper uses mktemp, pkill -P (to stop its own children when the plugin reloads), grep and tail.
• Files: a temporary file from mktemp holds the pipeline's stderr, so a failure can show the real error. It is deleted when the pipeline exits. Nothing else is written.
• Network: none.
• Wattage meaning: the number is usbeehive's powerInMW. That is the operating point the device negotiated over USB PD (UCSI voltage × current) when the kernel exposes it, otherwise the charger's active profile. Either way it is a negotiated ceiling, not a metered reading.
• Errors: if usbeehive or jq is missing or the watcher stops, the widget shows a crossed-out plug. The panel keeps the last device list and shows the error text, and the service retries every 10 seconds.
• Development: the standalone repo includes a sysfs fixture and wrapper (dev/usbeehive-fixture). Point usbeehive_path at it to see the charging UI on a machine without USB-C Power Delivery.