Built a simple network monitor for Linux to see what apps are actually doing

Posted by TheZupZup@reddit | linux | View on Reddit | 48 comments

I’ve been playing around with a small project called SilentGuard.

It’s basically a lightweight GTK app that shows outgoing connections in real time and maps them to processes.

I added a simple trust classification (Known / Unknown / Local) and detection of new connections.

Still very early, but already useful for me.

Repo: https://codeberg.org/TheZupZup/SilentGuard

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TheZupZup@reddit (OP)

SilentGuard - Update

Big improvements focused on reliability + TUI clarity:

Persistent blocklist (saved to \~/.silentguard_rules.json)
Clearer TUI action (B = “Blocklist IP”)
Faster monitoring (PID → process name cache)
Better error handling (no more silent JSON failures)
Added unit tests (block/unblock + classification)
Updated docs + roadmap

Still early, but getting more solid with each update.

Feedback and contributions welcome 🙌

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Eclectic-jellyfish@reddit

Cool. There's a TUI application similar to this written in rust. Check it out

https://github.com/imsnif/bandwhich

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TheZupZup@reddit (OP)

Nice, thanks for sharing!

I’ll definitely check it out — it’s always interesting to see how others approach similar ideas.

SilentGuard is still evolving, especially with the interactive features and focus on usability.

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Howaboutnopers@reddit

Using AI?

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TheZupZup@reddit (OP)

I use AI as a helper sometimes, but the project design and decisions are mine.

It’s more like a coding assistant than something building the project for me.

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gorkemcetin@reddit

Any chance to build similar for MacOS?

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TheZupZup@reddit (OP)

Honestly not right now, I’m not familiar enough with macOS infrastructure yet, but if a macOS dev wanted to help, I’d be 1000% open to a macOS version

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gorkemcetin@reddit

Fair enough. Thanks for the reply!

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TheZupZup@reddit (OP)

Thanks, I appreciate it. I do want to look into macOS support more in the future

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TheZupZup@reddit (OP)

Thanks for the support 🙏

If anyone tries it, I’d love feedback — even small UX ideas or bugs help a lot.

I’m actively improving it.

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TheZupZup@reddit (OP)

If you try SilentGuard, feel free to leave feedback or open an issue

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Bubbly_Extreme4986@reddit

Kudos for using codeberg not (micro)slophub

Any chance it can make it to the AUR?

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TheZupZup@reddit (OP)

Hey u/Bubbly_Extreme4986, I started working on AUR packaging 🙂

There’s already a PKGBUILD in the repo if you want to try it or give feedback

Still very early, but I’d love to improve it

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TheZupZup@reddit (OP)

AUR packaging is now in the repo (PKGBUILD + .SRCINFO) 🙂

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TheZupZup@reddit (OP)

Just got it building and installing through pacman 🙂

AUR packaging is working end-to-end now

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Bubbly_Extreme4986@reddit

Interesting. I’m testing it out on Parabola. The GUI shows the Remote IPs , the Ports and the status just fine. It obeys my system theme and all.

However it doesn’t list processes or trust (all listed as unknown).

I’m not sure if this is a skill issue on my part though.

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TheZupZup@reddit (OP)

Could you try running it with sudo?

sudo silentguard

Sometimes psutil can't resolve process names without elevated permissions

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Bubbly_Extreme4986@reddit

Yes! That solved the problem. Thanks!

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TheZupZup@reddit (OP)

Really appreciate you taking the time to test it 🙏

Thanks a lot for the feedback, it actually helps a ton while I'm improving things

Glad it worked 🙂

I'll probably add a warning when running without sudo so it's clearer for users

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Bubbly_Extreme4986@reddit

So I ran into this error trying out the tty.

sudo silentguard-tui

Traceback (most recent call last):

File "/usr/bin/silentguard-tui", line 5, in

from silentguard.tui import main

File "/usr/lib/python3.14/site-packages/silentguard/tui.py", lin

from textual.app import App, ComposeResult

ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'textual'

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Bubbly_Extreme4986@reddit

I’m running a bunch of daemons like I2Pd and tor so it’s useful

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TheZupZup@reddit (OP)

That's actually a really interesting use case

Glad it's useful in setups like that, especially with things like I2P and Tor

I'll definitely keep that in mind when improving detection and trust classification

Feel free to share anything else you notice

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TheZupZup@reddit (OP)

That would be awesome actually

I haven’t packaged it yet, but it’s definitely something I want to add soon

If anyone is interested in helping with an AUR package, I’d be happy to collaborate.

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rg-atte@reddit

I'd say in its current form it's "unpackageable" if you want to do it correctly. That is to say install it as a correctly structured python package.

I'd recommend having a look at https://packaging.python.org/en/latest/tutorials/packaging-projects/

If you follow that it should be pretty easy to package for any distribution with the "usual" boilerplate if there aren't any dependency version conflicts.

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TheZupZup@reddit (OP)

That makes a lot of sense, thanks for the explanation

I haven’t structured it as a proper Python package yet, but I’ll definitely look into it

Appreciate the resource 🙂

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TheZupZup@reddit (OP)

Update: Added TUI version with navigation and filtering

Now supports:

- Keyboard navigation

- Unknown filtering

- Details view (Enter)

- AUR packaging

Still early but improving fast — feedback welcome

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Daktyl198@reddit

Interesting that I was looking for something very close to this a little bit ago. Any chance of getting a TUI version for server?

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TheZupZup@reddit (OP)

That’s actually really helpful feedback 🙂

I just started working on a TUI version today, since it makes a lot of sense for servers

I’ll keep you posted — would love to know what features you’d expect from it

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TheZupZup@reddit (OP)

That’s a really good idea actually

Right now it’s focused on a GTK interface, but a TUI version for servers would make a lot of sense

I’ll definitely consider it 🙂

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TheZupZup@reddit (OP)

Just published a first alpha release with an Arch package 🙂

You can download and test it here:
https://codeberg.org/TheZupZup/SilentGuard/releases

Would love feedback if you try it

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TheZupZup@reddit (OP)

Started working on AUR support 🙂

PKGBUILD is already available in the repo if anyone wants to try it

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TheZupZup@reddit (OP)

Just pushed an update 🙂

You can now install it with pip and run it with `silentguard`

Also added a desktop launcher so it shows up in the app menu

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TheZupZup@reddit (OP)

You can now install it with pip and run it with `silentguard` 🙂

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Negative-Track-9179@reddit

we need screenshots

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TheZupZup@reddit (OP)

Fair point, just added a screenshot to the repo 🙂

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leonsk297@reddit

Another software pitch without screenshots. People, is it that hard to include a couple of screenshots?

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TheZupZup@reddit (OP)

Fair point 😄

I didn’t take screenshots yet since it’s still pretty early, but I’ll add some soon

For now it’s a simple GTK interface showing processes, remote IPs and connection status in real time

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mmmboppe@reddit

it stops being prettly early the moment you make it public

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ficskala@reddit

so it's like a more limited version of something like wireshark or nocta?

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TheZupZup@reddit (OP)

Yeah, it’s definitely much simpler than tools like Wireshark

I’m not trying to replace those, more like a lightweight and easy way to quickly see what’s going on and spot unexpected connections

More focused on simplicity than deep analysis 🙂

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mmmboppe@reddit

is wireshark mapping connections to processes?

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BigHeadTonyT@reddit

Other similar app:

https://github.com/yofabr/nocta

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TheZupZup@reddit (OP)

If you try it, I’d love to hear what you think.

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Ill-Suggestion-349@reddit

https://github.com/raboof/nethogs

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TheZupZup@reddit (OP)

Yeah

I’ve seen similar tools, that’s actually what motivated me to try building my own version with a simpler UI and real-time feedback

Still learning, but it’s been a really fun project so far