Patina

nm-connection-editor power, over SSH, with the UX of a modern TUI.

A Rust rewrite of nmtui targeting full NetworkManager feature parity, live monitoring, and modern TUI ergonomics — all usable over SSH without a graphical environment.

Why

No existing tool combines SSH-friendly operation, full NM configuration, modern UX, and live monitoring.

	SSH	Full config	VPN	WPA-E	Revert timer	Live stats	Fuzzy search
nm-connection-editor	—	✓	✓	✓	—	—	—
GNOME Settings	—	partial	✓	—	✓	—	—
plasma-nm	—	✓	✓	✓	—	—	—
Cockpit	web	partial	—	—	✓	✓	—
nmtui	✓	partial	—	—	—	—	—
wifitui	✓	—	—	—	—	—	✓
nmcli	✓	✓	✓	✓	—	—	—
patina++	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓

Cockpit is the closest competitor — remote-capable, live stats, revert safety — but requires a web server daemon, open port 9090, and a browser. Can't do VPN or WiFi config. For locked-down servers, it's overkill or unavailable.

wifitui proved demand for fuzzy search and modern TUI UX in network tooling, but dead-ends at WiFi connect — no configuration editing at all.

Feature Roadmap

Pillar 1 — Discovery & Search

• Fuzzy search across saved connections and visible SSIDs
• Manual WiFi rescan trigger (nmtui waits ~60s passively)
• Sort by signal strength, name, security type
• Filter by band (2.4 / 5 / 6 GHz)
• Hidden SSID connect
• Channel overlap visualization

Pillar 2 — Monitoring & Stats

• Live signal strength sparkline (dBm over time)
• TX/RX throughput graph (from /proc/net/dev or nl80211)
• Latency / packet loss monitor (ICMP ping)
• Per-device status dashboard (nmcli device show data)
• Connection uptime and history log
• DNS resolution timing

Pillar 3 — Configuration

Everything nmtui currently supports:

• Connection types: Ethernet, Wi-Fi, Bond, Bridge, Team, VLAN, InfiniBand
• Per-connection: profile name, device, cloned MAC, MTU
• WiFi: SSID, mode, BSSID, WPA/WPA2-PSK, password
• IPv4/IPv6: Automatic / Manual / Link-Local / Disabled
• IP detail: addresses, gateway, DNS servers, search domains
• Routing: static routes (dest/prefix, next-hop, metric), never-default, ignore-auto-dns
• Bond: mode, slaves, JSON config
• Bridge: STP, priority, forward delay, hello time, max age
• VLAN: parent device, VLAN ID
• Flags: auto-connect, available to all users

What nmtui is missing (nmcli / nm-connection-editor can do these):

• VPN profiles — WireGuard, OpenVPN, OpenConnect
• WPA Enterprise (EAP-TLS, PEAP, TTLS, FAST)
• 802.1X wired authentication
• IP Tunnel, MACsec connection types
• Firewall zone assignment
• Connection priority and metered hint
• Proxy settings (PAC / manual)
• DNS-over-TLS / DNSSEC options
• Wake-on-LAN settings
• WiFi power saving / scan interval
• MAC randomization (per-scan, per-connect)
• Autoconnect retries and priority ordering
• Connection secondaries / dependencies
• Import / export connection profiles

Pillar 4 — UX & Safety

Simplification — Presets:

• "Home WiFi" — WPA2-PSK, DHCP, auto-DNS
• "Server" — static IP, no WiFi, jumbo MTU
• "Corporate" — WPA-Enterprise + proxy + VPN auto-trigger
• "Privacy" — MAC randomization + DNS-over-TLS
• "Hotspot" — AP mode, bridge, DHCP server

Smart completions:

• Auto-detect subnet from gateway (CIDR calculator)
• DNS autocomplete — dropdown of popular resolvers (1.1.1.1, 8.8.8.8, 9.9.9.9)
• Certificate file picker (TUI file browser) for EAP / VPN
• SSID autocomplete from live scan results
• IP conflict detection before apply

Visual aids:

• Live validation (red/green) on IP and CIDR input fields
• Diff view — pending changes vs active running config
• Topology preview for complex setups (bond → bridge → VLAN tree)
• Revert timer — auto-rollback in N seconds if user doesn't confirm (critical for remote SSH config; inspired by GNOME Settings' 15s countdown, but SSH-accessible)

Navigation:

• Vim-style keybinds (j/k/g/G, / for search)
• Radio toggle panel (WiFi / WWAN / Bluetooth on/off)
• Inline password reveal + WiFi QR code generation

Architecture Notes

┌─────────────┐      ┌──────────────┐      ┌────────────┐
│  TUI layer  │◄────►│  App state   │◄────►│ NM backend │
│  (ratatui)  │      │ (os thread)  │      │            │
└─────────────┘      └──────────────┘      └────────────┘
                                            │          │
                                     ┌──────┘          └──────┐
                                     ▼                        ▼
                              ┌────────────┐          ┌─────────────┐
                              │ D-Bus      │          │ nmcli       │
                              │ (zbus)     │          │ (fallback)  │
                              │ preferred  │          │ subprocess  │
                              └────────────┘          └─────────────┘

• TUI: ratatui — actively maintained, good widget ecosystem
• Async runtime: Os Thread — drives polling loop, D-Bus subscriptions, ping probes
• NM backend (preferred): zbus for typed async D-Bus calls to org.freedesktop.NetworkManager
• NM backend (fallback): nmcli subprocess parsing for environments where D-Bus is restricted
• Fuzzy matching: nucleo (same engine as Helix editor)

Prior Art

Tool	Language	What it does well	What it lacks
nmtui	C (newt)	Decent config UI for basic types	No VPN, no WPA-E, no search, no stats, no validation
wifitui	Go	Fuzzy search, QR, rescan, multi-backend	Zero configuration editing
impala	Rust	Clean Rust TUI, signal bars	iwd-only, no NM, no config
Cockpit	JS	Web UI, live graphs, revert safety	Requires daemon + browser, no VPN, no WiFi
nm-connection-editor	C (GTK)	Full NM feature parity	Needs X11/Wayland
wavemon	C (ncurses)	Real-time WiFi signal monitoring	No config, WiFi only

License

TBD