wifi-debug

Reports on the active wifi association: SSID, RSSI, channel, noise, Tx rate, BSSID, surrounding networks, and recent disconnect events.

When to invoke

Trigger on phrases like: "debug wifi", "wifi not working", "check wifi", "why is wifi slow", "wifi signal".

Data sources and fallbacks

macOS Sonoma and later deprecate airport. Use a layered approach:

1. wdutil info — authoritative on newer macOS. Non-elevated output is usually redacted but still includes SSID, channel, and RSSI on many systems. Invoke without sudo: wdutil info 2>/dev/null. Do not call sudo.
2. Legacy airport — /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Versions/Current/Resources/airport -I. If the binary exists and returns output, prefer it for RSSI / noise / Tx rate numbers.
3. networksetup — networksetup -getairportnetwork en0 for SSID, networksetup -getinfo "Wi-Fi" for MAC / IP.

If none yield data, emit severity info, summary "Wi-Fi interface off or unavailable."

What to extract