nmtui

A terminal UI for managing Wi-Fi with NetworkManager, built with bubbletea.

Features

• List nearby networks with signal strength, security, and channel
• Scan on demand (r)
• Connect to networks — reuses saved profiles automatically, only prompts for a password when the network has no saved profile yet
• Disconnect (d), forget saved networks (f)
• Toggle Wi-Fi radio on/off (t)
• Live status bar: radio state, active connection, and IP address
• Filter the network list (/)

Requirements

• Linux with NetworkManager (networkmanager package on Arch)
• nmcli in $PATH
• An active session (polkit grants Wi-Fi management without root on desktop sessions like KDE)

Build

go build -o nmtui .

Reproducible build with Nix

flake.nix pins nixpkgs and the Go toolchain through flake.lock, so every build uses an identical dependency set regardless of the host system:

nix build             # binary at ./result/bin/nmtui
nix flake check       # builds the package and runs the test suite in the sandbox
nix run .             # run the TUI straight from the flake

If you use direnv, direnv allow once — every shell in this directory then automatically uses the pinned dev shell (Go 1.27, gopls, make) via nix-direnv:

direnv allow
go version            # reports the toolchain from the flake, not the system
make build            # or: make check (vet + tests), make run, make install

Usage

./nmtui [flags]

Flags

Flag	Description
-i, --interface <name>	Wi-Fi interface to manage (e.g. wlan0)
-v, --version	Print version information and exit
-h, --help	Show help information and exit

Keybindings

Key	Action
↑/k ↓/j	navigate networks
enter	connect
r	rescan
t	toggle Wi-Fi on/off
d	disconnect current network
f	forget selected network's saved profile
/	filter networks
esc	clear active filter / dismiss message
q / ctrl+c	quit

Notes

• If a saved profile has a stale password, connect will fail — press f to forget the network, then enter to reconnect with the correct password.
• Hidden networks appear as (hidden network) and cannot be joined from the list; create a profile for them once via nmcli and they will show up normally afterwards.

Layout

main.go              entry point
internal/nm/         nmcli wrapper (exec, terse-mode parsing, actions)
internal/ui/         bubbletea model, keybindings, styles