netui

A lightweight, keyboard-driven Terminal User Interface (TUI) network manager built with Rust and Ratatui, engineered strictly for pure IWD + systemd-networkd + systemd-resolved stacks with zero NetworkManager dependency.

Core Architecture

netui keeps each responsibility small and explicit:

• Wi-Fi association and scanning: direct IWD D-Bus integration through net.connman.iwd.
• Interface and link tracking: systemd-networkd D-Bus data, supplemented by sysfs where appropriate.
• DNS and DNS-over-TLS: systemd-resolved through org.freedesktop.resolve1.
• Profile management: an in-memory session store designed for declarative, NixOS-friendly systems.

The application does not require or invoke NetworkManager.

Features

• Dual-pane layout for active connections and network interfaces.
• Keyboard-first navigation, connection actions, and session-profile editing.
• Direct IWD scanning and association with non-fatal handling for disabled Wi-Fi adapters.
• Privacy-first address formatting: link-local IPv6 (fe80::/10) addresses are always hidden to avoid EUI-64 MAC-address leakage.
• Live IPv6 display toggle with only non-link-local IPv6 addresses shown when enabled.
• Clean [LOOP] classification and neutral loopback state for loopback interfaces.
• DNS-over-TLS policy control through systemd-resolved.
• Clamped single-line status footer with responsive, styled keybind badges.
• Backend errors are contained in the TUI state rather than leaking D-Bus failures into the terminal.

Keybindings

Key	Action
q / Esc / Ctrl+C	Quit
Tab	Switch pane
↑ / ↓ or j / k	Navigate items
Enter	Activate / connect selected item
e	Edit session profile
d	Forget selected Wi-Fi network
6	Toggle IPv6 display

Building And Installation

Nix flakes

Run the application directly from the repository:

nix run

Enter the development shell and run from Cargo:

nix develop -c cargo run

Cargo

Install the Rust toolchain and D-Bus development headers, then build an optimized binary:

cargo build --release

The binary is written to target/release/netui.

Runtime prerequisites

netui is intended for systems running:

• iwd
• systemd-networkd
• systemd-resolved

The application uses the system D-Bus. Wi-Fi association requires an active IWD service; DNS-over-TLS controls require an active systemd-resolved service.

License

netui is distributed under the MIT License.