Claude Code Notification Mods: Toasts, Sounds and Alerts

Claude Code notification mods tell you that something happened while you were looking elsewhere: a long turn finished, the context window is nearly full, a command was blocked, or a test run failed. They use short toasts inside Claude Code, an optional sound, and sometimes a system notification so you notice from another window.

How do Claude Code notification mods work?#

Most of them listen to turn.complete, which fires when Claude finishes a turn and carries the turn's duration, whether it was aborted, the stop reason and an agentId for subagent turns. The mod then calls $.ui.toast('...') for an in-app message and $.audio.play(...) for a bundled sound clip. Warnings about limits usually come from $.session.usage() read after a turn, and a safety mod might toast from inside its tool.call hook when it refuses a command.

There is no dedicated desktop-notification call in the mods API. A mod that wants macOS Notification Center or a Linux libnotify popup runs osascript or notify-send with $.process.run. Passing arguments as an argv array, as opposed to a shell string, avoids quoting problems with Claude's answer text.

What should you check before installing one?#

A toast-only mod should show Changes the UI and maybe Plays sound. If you also see Runs commands, check that it only calls a notifier program and only when you turned system notifications on. If a mod includes part of Claude's answer in the notification, remember that text then shows in your OS notification history.

Then look at the threshold. A good notification mod stays quiet for short turns, interrupted turns and subagent turns, and lets you change the minimum length in /config.

Toast, sound or system notification?#

Use a toast when you are in the terminal anyway. Add a sound when you switch to a browser during long turns. Turn on system notifications when you work across several desktops or full-screen apps and would not see the terminal at all. Most people keep only the first two on.