#194·witr

[Feature]: Record & Replay Mode (atop-style)

Author: Terry-QinCreated May 15, 2026Updated Sep 1, 2026
Labelsenhancement

Is your feature request related to a problem?

I wish I could capture witr's process analysis over time and review it later. Currently witr only works in real-time, so if an interesting process appears and disappears (e.g. a short-lived cron job, a crashing service), there's no way to go back and see why it was running.

Describe the solution you'd like

A record/replay mode similar to atop:

  • witr record -i <interval> -o <file> — periodically snapshot process information to a file
  • witr replay -f <file> — restore and browse the recorded snapshots, ideally with the same query flags as live mode (--port, --pid, name, etc.)

The replay mode could support jumping to a specific timestamp and navigating forward/backward through snapshots interactively (TUI) or querying non-interactively for scripting.

Additional context

This is particularly useful for edge devices and servers where you can't always be watching in real time — you want to collect recordings continuously and analyze them after an incident. atop -w / atop -r is the direct inspiration.