Agents · Dynotch

Every Claude Code session shows up in the notch: what’s working, what’s waiting for you and what’s done. When one asks to run something, you can allow or deny it from the notch, then go back to the session.

It works through Claude Code’s hooks, in the terminal and in the desktop app, so nothing shows until they’re in place.

Setting it up

Terminal setup in Settings›General adds the hooks for you, beside any you already have, and takes them out again.

To do it by hand, add this to ~/.claude/settings.json:

{
  "hooks": {
    "SessionStart": [{ "hooks": [{ "type": "command", "command": "dynotch hook", "async": true }] }],
    "SessionEnd": [{ "hooks": [{ "type": "command", "command": "dynotch hook", "async": true }] }],
    "UserPromptSubmit": [{ "hooks": [{ "type": "command", "command": "dynotch hook", "async": true }] }],
    "PreToolUse": [{ "hooks": [{ "type": "command", "command": "dynotch hook", "async": true }] }],
    "PostToolUse": [{ "hooks": [{ "type": "command", "command": "dynotch hook", "async": true }] }],
    "PostToolUseFailure": [{ "hooks": [{ "type": "command", "command": "dynotch hook", "async": true }] }],
    "Notification": [{ "hooks": [{ "type": "command", "command": "dynotch hook", "async": true }] }],
    "Stop": [{ "hooks": [{ "type": "command", "command": "dynotch hook", "async": true }] }],
    "PermissionRequest": [{ "hooks": [{ "type": "command", "command": "dynotch hook" }] }]
  }
}

This needs the dynotch command on your PATH. Only PermissionRequest runs without async, since it’s the one that waits for your answer.

If Dynotch isn’t running, the hooks do nothing and Claude Code carries on as usual.

In the notch

While something needs you, a count shows at the end of the closed notch’s right ear, in orange. It stays there through calls and presentations.

The Agents tab is there while there are sessions, with those waiting for you first. Each has a dot, its project and a quiet line:

Dot	Line
Orange	`Wants to run: npm run screens`
The accent	`Running swift build · 4 min`
Green	`Done 2 min ago`
Gray	`Ready`, for one that hasn’t been asked anything yet

Back goes to the session, on the right tab where the terminal allows that. For a session in the desktop app it brings Claude forward, and can’t pick out the session. A terminal Dynotch doesn’t know gets no button. Review turns the notch to that session’s tool call in the glance. The project is the name of the folder the session started in.

Answering a tool call

While a tool call is waiting, the notch goes to the glance rather than opening, whatever you’ve set resting the pointer to show. The glance has the project, the tool and all of what would happen:

Tool	What it shows
Bash	The folder it runs in, then the whole command
Write	The file’s path and what it would write
Edit	The file’s path, then what would go and what would come
Anything else	The tool’s full name and its whole input

A long one scrolls, and the line under it says so. A subagent’s request is marked Subagent. With several waiting, they come oldest first, with 1 of 3 in the right ear. Answering one brings up the next.

Allow and Deny are only ever here. The tab has Review, on purpose.

During a recording

A recording keeps the glance, so Stop stays where you expect it, and the count shows beside the time. To answer from the notch, open it and click Review on the session’s row. The glance stays on the tool calls until they’re answered or the notch closes, then goes back to Stop.

Your own prompt stays

The hook runs alongside Claude Code’s own prompt, so you can answer in either place, and whichever comes first wins. If you answer in the terminal, the notch lets the question go once the tool has finished, or your next prompt is in, or the session stops or ends. Until then it may still show there, and answering it does nothing.

A question nobody answers goes from the notch after a little over ten minutes. Claude Code’s prompt is still there, and the session shows as waiting until it moves on.

AskUserQuestion and the plan approval want more than a yes, so they stay in Claude Code’s window. The session shows as waiting, with Back.

Why Allow is hard to press by accident

Allow approves something real, so:

Allow and Deny are dim and do nothing for 0.6 seconds after a tool call reaches the front, or as long as your double-click speed if that’s slower. One that takes another’s place waits 1.2 seconds, so a double click on Allow can’t approve the one behind it, and neither can a pointer that’s still resting there.
What counts is when your press began. One that began while the buttons were dim, or on the tool call before this one, does nothing, however late you let go.
Nothing allows by itself. There’s no key for it, no timeout that allows, and no script, dynotch:// link or notice button can answer. When in doubt Dynotch says nothing, and Claude Code asks for itself.
What’s shown can’t hide. Control characters, terminal escapes, text-direction overrides, characters that draw nothing and marks stacked on one letter show as orange markers, like <ESC> or <U+202E>, instead of doing what they do. Right-to-left words keep their places in a line. Tabs show as a faint arrow. Nothing is cut short.

When it tells you

What happened	The notice
A tool call is waiting	Needs you, with the tool and the project
A session is asking in its own window, and no question reached the notch	Needs you, with the project and Back
A turn of two minutes or more finishes	Done, with the project and how long it took

Turns shorter than that say nothing, so a busy day of sessions stays quiet. On a call or in a presentation, notices wait as usual, and one about a question that’s gone by then doesn’t show.

How long sessions stay

A session goes when it ends. Dynotch can miss that, and the desktop app keeps idle sessions alive for days, so:

A session that’s	Leaves the list
Done, hasn’t started anything, or waiting with nothing to answer here	An hour after it was last heard from
Working	After six hours of silence

Either comes back with the next thing it does.

What Dynotch keeps

dynotch hook leaves your prompts, Claude’s replies, what tools print and where the transcript is behind. It passes on which session it is, its folder, the tool, and what names the tool’s target, like a command or a file’s path. Only a tool call waiting for your answer sends more, so the glance can show it.

Nothing about a session is written to disk. It’s all in memory, and goes when you quit.

Rows and notices name a command alone, swift build say, since its arguments can hold tokens, and the notch is on screen when you share it. Only the glance shows a whole command. Nothing about a command reaches the recent list or dynotch status, which reports how many sessions are in each state.

Turning it off

Turn off Claude Code in Settings›Live Activities. The notch shows nothing, and any tool call that’s waiting goes back to Claude Code’s own prompt. The hooks stay and do nothing, until you take them out in Terminal setup.