Pre-alpha 0.1.0-alpha.3. Battery readings verified on hardware with Keychron M6, MX Keys over Bluetooth and Galaxy Buds3 Pro; Logitech receivers and MX Master 3S still await hardware validation.

PeriGauge
Pre-alpha · Linux · KDE Plasma 6 first

Your mouse, keyboard and headphone battery, right in your panel.

PeriGauge shows a meter for each device in the panel, on the desktop and in a popup, and warns you before they run out. Choose circular gauges or bars, including left bud, right bud and case. Disconnected devices are hidden by default. A single Rust binary, fully local: no Solaar, no network, no telemetry.

See install (pre-alpha) Supported devices Source on GitHub
PeriGauge gauges: Keychron M6 41%, Galaxy Buds3 Pro left 83%, right 80% and case 79%.
PeriGauge Qt/QML interface on KDE Plasma, with real readings from a Keychron M6 and Galaxy Buds3 Pro. Captured October 8, 2026.

How states are shown

  • Good
  • Low
  • Critical
  • Charging
  • Stale reading

Devices

What works today, and with what evidence

We separate what was tested on hardware from what is still in development. No device is listed as supported without its evidence level.

Compatibility by device and evidence level. Pre-alpha.
DeviceConnectionBackendEvidenceNotes
Keychron M6Keychron Ultra-Link 8K receiverVendor HID protocolVerified on hardwareRead from a real M6 through the Ultra-Link 8K receiver.
Logitech MX KeysBluetoothDirect HID++ 2.0 (no Solaar)Verified on hardwareBattery reading verified over Bluetooth with direct HID++, no Solaar. Charging cycles and notifications on this keyboard are not yet verified.
Logitech MX KeysUnifying receiverDirect HID++ 2.0 (no Solaar)In developmentFixture-based tests; hardware pending.
Logitech MX Master 3SBolt receiver or BluetoothDirect HID++ 2.0 (no Solaar)In developmentFixture-based tests; hardware pending.
Samsung Galaxy Buds3 ProBluetoothSamsung SPP protocolVerified on hardwareBattery readings and updates verified over Bluetooth on a real device: left bud, right bud and case, when reported by the device.
Any device UPower/BlueZ already reportsBluetooth / USBUPower and BlueZ (kernel power_supply, BLE Battery Service, HFP)Generic / expectedDepends on what the device reports; not a per-model guarantee.

Full details, including data read, in COMPATIBILITY.md.

Notifications

Warns at the right time, without nagging.

Four thresholds, delivered through the desktop notification server.

  • 20%

    Warning

    Warning Battery is low.

  • 10%

    Critical

    Critical Time to charge.

  • 5%

    Shutting down

    Critical The device is about to power off.

  • 100%

    Charged

    Charged Notifies when it reaches 100%.

  • Hysteresis

    Hysteresis keeps the same alert from repeating on every reading.

  • Never on a stale reading

    A stale reading or a voltage-estimated percentage never alerts; the state shows as “Stale reading”. When a device only reports an approximate level, the alert follows the device itself (low/critical).

  • Do not disturb

    It uses the desktop notification server, so “do not disturb” mode is respected.

Privacy

Local by default, for real.

PeriGauge only talks to your devices and to your desktop.

  • No network

    No network use: everything happens on your machine.

  • No telemetry

    No usage metrics are collected or sent.

  • No Solaar

    Logitech support uses direct HID++ 2.0, with no Solaar dependency.

  • User daemon

    One binary, perigauge, running as a systemd --user service, no root.

Install

Install (pre-alpha)

Binary for Linux x86_64 with glibc 2.39 or newer, tested on Ubuntu 26.04 with KDE Plasma 6. Check the checksum and dry-run before installing; everything goes to your user, no sudo. To build from source, see the README.

# download the release and check the checksum
curl -LO https://github.com/caiolombello/perigauge/releases/download/v0.1.0-alpha.3/perigauge-0.1.0-alpha.3-x86_64-linux.tar.gz
curl -LO https://github.com/caiolombello/perigauge/releases/download/v0.1.0-alpha.3/SHA256SUMS
sha256sum -c SHA256SUMS
tar xf perigauge-0.1.0-alpha.3-x86_64-linux.tar.gz
cd perigauge-0.1.0-alpha.3
# dry-run; then install with the notification service
./install.sh --dry-run
./install.sh --enable-service

Root-less HID access needs a udev rule. It is an explicit, separate step that uses sudo, documented in the repository; the installer never runs it on its own.

Roadmap

What comes next

  • 0.1.0-alpha.3

    Disconnected devices hidden by default and MX Keys battery reading verified over Bluetooth. Published October 2026.

  • KDE Plasma 6 plasmoid

    Always-visible batteries in the panel and on the desktop; popup follows the panel style.

  • GNOME Shell extension

    Planned for after the plasmoid.

  • More devices

    More peripherals as hardware is available to verify. Each with its own evidence level.