For SSH and remote desktops
Keystrokes that show up a second late. A Parsec screen that freezes mid-drag. Kilobat watches the line to the server while you work and, when the session ends, says how often it lagged and why, down to whether the server or your Wi-Fi was to blame.
brew install seifip/kilobat/kilobat# Why did typing lag?
$ kilobat remote --limit 1
SSH to build.example.com, 38 min
✗ Typing lagged 4 times: jitter on
your Wi-Fi or router (RTT to the
server swung 41→610 ms)
Try a cable or the 5 GHz band.
Try Mosh for this server: it echoes
your typing at once.Once a second while you work, Kilobat pings the server, the internet and your router, reads the connection’s own TCP round trip from macOS, and notes which other apps are busy. Nothing in the session is read.
Jitter on the Wi-Fi or router: the round trip swings from 40 ms to half a second.
Names the Wi-Fi, shows how far the round trip swung, and for SSH suggests Mosh. Pro
Another app on your Mac filling the upload or download: Dropbox, iCloud, a backup, Steam.
Names the app and whether it was uploading. Pro
Another device on your network streaming or downloading.
When your router shares its traffic counters (UPnP), Kilobat sees the line busy with traffic your Mac didn’t send. Pro
AirDrop scanning: the Mac’s radio hops channels to look for nearby devices.
Named, with low latency mode to pause AirDrop while you work. Pro
Your provider or beyond it.
Router fine, internet slow too: it says so, and the report for your provider proves it over time. Pro
The path to the server, past your provider.
The internet answered on time and the server didn’t, so the delay was near the server or its network. Pro
The server itself, busy or swapping.
Your keystrokes went unanswered while the server answered pings at once. Said only after it happened twice. Pro
The server is far away.
A round trip of 150 ms or more is named even on a clean line, with Mosh as the fix. Pro
The Mac itself: CPU maxed out, memory running out, running hot, or the GPU saturated.
Says which, and which app used the CPU. Pro
Kilobat finds sessions by their process, not by asking you to start anything. It counts ssh and mosh in a terminal, and Screen Sharing, Parsec, Jump Desktop, Windows App, AnyDesk, TeamViewer and RustDesk.
An ssh counts when it has a terminal of its own and you type into it for a minute. scp, sftp, rsync, git over ssh, tunnels with -N, ProxyJump hops and an editor’s or agent’s background ssh never do. A remote desktop counts once it shows a screen and you work in it.
Pings to the server, the internet and your router, the connection’s TCP round trip every few seconds, the busiest other app and the Mac’s load: the call report engine, pointed at your server. A server that ignores ping is measured through its TCP round trip instead.
A card in Health › Remote sessions with the round trip second by second and each lag in rose. A notification only when the session lagged or froze. Kilobat counts the lags for free; Pro names each cause, what to try and when Mosh would help.
FreeThe report
Health › Remote sessions shows the round trip to the server second by second, each lag in rose, the ping, jitter and loss, and the cause in one sentence: “Typing lagged 4 times: jitter on your Wi-Fi or router (RTT to build.example.com swung 41→610 ms).” Earlier sessions sit underneath, one line each.
Mosh, when it helps
SSH waits for the server to echo every keystroke, so a round trip that swings or drops packets makes typing stutter. Mosh echoes your typing at once and rides out lost packets and Wi-Fi changes. When the lags came from the Wi-Fi, AirDrop, Starlink or the path, or the server is far away, the report says to try it. When an app, another device, the Mac or the server itself was the cause, it says what to fix instead.
# Recent sessions, each lag, its length and cause
$ kilobat remote
# Only remote desktops, for scripts
$ kilobat remote --kind desktop --jsonCoding agents read the reports through the MCP tool get_remote_session_reports. Read the docs.
Let agents run. Each agent run shows up from its own hooks: working, waiting for you, done or failed. Kilobat keeps the Mac awake while they work, with the lid closed if you allow it, or only while an app like Keynote is in front.
kilobat remote and the MCP tool for agentsPro is $19 once for two Macs, with a 7-day free trial and 14-day refunds. Free for students.
No. It sees that an ssh or remote desktop process is running, the address it’s connected to and how many bytes it moves, which any network monitor sees. It never reads what you type or what comes back, and everything stays on your Mac.
One ping a second to the server’s address while a session is open, the same as running ping in another tab. It never opens a connection to the server’s SSH port, so nothing shows up in its auth log.
ssh and mosh in Terminal, iTerm2, Ghostty, WezTerm, kitty, Alacritty, Warp, VS Code, Cursor and Zed, also under tmux; Screen Sharing, Parsec, Jump Desktop, Windows App (Microsoft Remote Desktop), AnyDesk, TeamViewer and RustDesk. Chrome Remote Desktop runs inside a browser tab, where Kilobat can’t tell it from the browser.
Your keystrokes went out and nothing came back for two seconds or more, while the server answered pings at once and your router did too. Kilobat says so only when that happened at least twice in a session, and only for SSH, where every keystroke is echoed by the server.
No. A session needs a terminal of its own and a minute of typing into it. Copies, git, tunnels and ssh run by an editor or an AI agent in the background are left out.
Kilobat counts the lags for free. Kilobat Pro, $19 once with a 7-day free trial, names each cause, says what to try and when Mosh would help.
brew install seifip/kilobat/kilobat