ctop — Top-Like Interface for Container Metrics

What it is

ctop is a terminal-based monitoring tool that brings the familiar Unix top experience to Docker and runC containers. It displays live CPU, memory, network I/O, and disk I/O metrics per container in a scrollable table.

ctop targets developers and DevOps engineers who want quick container resource visibility without setting up a full monitoring stack like Prometheus plus Grafana.

How it saves time or tokens

Instead of parsing docker stats output or piping JSON through jq, ctop provides instant visual feedback in a single command. It also lets you start, stop, pause, and remove containers directly from the TUI, eliminating context-switching to a separate terminal window.

How to use

1. Install ctop:

# macOS
brew install ctop
# Linux
sudo wget https://github.com/bcicen/ctop/releases/download/v0.7.7/ctop-0.7.7-linux-amd64 -O /usr/local/bin/ctop
sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/ctop

1. Run ctop in your terminal. It auto-detects the Docker daemon.

1. Use arrow keys to select a container and press Enter for detailed sparkline graphs.

Example

# Launch ctop
ctop

# Filter containers by name
ctop -f web

# Sort by CPU usage
# Press 's' inside ctop, then select 'cpu'

# Connect to a remote Docker host
DOCKER_HOST=tcp://remote:2375 ctop

Related on TokRepo

• DevOps Tools -- Infrastructure monitoring and container management tools
• Self-Hosted Solutions -- Tools you can run on your own servers

Common pitfalls

• ctop requires access to the Docker daemon socket. If running as a non-root user, add yourself to the docker group or use sudo.
• The default refresh interval is 1 second which can cause high CPU on hosts with hundreds of containers. Use the -i flag to increase the interval.
• ctop does not support Kubernetes pods directly. It monitors containers at the Docker/runC runtime level only.