[3] Conky is highly configurable[4][5][6] and is able to monitor many system variables including the status of the CPU, memory, swap space, disk storage, temperatures, processes, network interfaces, battery power, system messages, e-mail inboxes, Arch Linux updates, many popular music players (MPD, XMMS2, BMPx, Audacious, etc.

[7] Unlike system monitors that use high-level widget toolkits to render their information, Conky is drawn directly in an X window.

Damn Small Linux, for example, runs torsmo in its desktop root window on the default installation of its Live CD.

[14] While Conky is suited for use as a system monitor, it can also be used to gather and display many other sources of information and can be extended with the Lua programming language.

Users have created and distributed many customized scripts, demonstrating Conky's modularity and versatility in function and appearance.