nic

Show network interfaces and addresses on macOS with traffic stats, Wi-Fi details, and interface classification.

What it does

nic replaces ifconfig with a focused, color-coded summary of every network interface on the machine. Active interfaces sort to the top with traffic light indicators for status and IPv4 connectivity. A bar chart shows relative traffic volume across interfaces.

Each interface is classified by type — Wi-Fi, Ethernet, Tailscale, VM Bridge, AirDrop, Loopback, and more — based on naming conventions and CoreWLAN queries. Wi-Fi interfaces include signal strength, SSID, channel, and transmit rate.

The detail view shows full addressing (IPv4 + IPv6 with scope labels), traffic counters, link speed, MAC address, and interface flags.

Detail view

Install

brew install ansilithic/tap/nic

Or build from source (requires Xcode and macOS 14+):

make build && make install

Usage

nic [interface] [options]

Flag	Description
-a, --all	Include inactive interfaces
--json	Output as JSON
--no-public-ip	Skip public IP lookup
<interface>	Show full detail for a specific interface

Examples

# Default view — active interfaces with traffic chart
nic

# All interfaces including inactive
nic -a

# Detail view for a specific interface
nic en0

# JSON output for scripting
nic --json

# JSON detail for a single interface
nic en0 --json

License

MIT