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Notification after a long running command finishes #6372
Description
Description of the new feature/enhancement
It would be awesome to add an option for a notification bubble or sound after a long running command. Long running command can be configurable but a sane default could be 10 seconds.
The scenario for this would to switch users from a pull to push model. Without notifications, a user would have to constantly "pull" their terminal to see if their command is done. Switching to push removes the cognitive overhead of having to constantly pull and instead be pushed only once the command is done running.
Current workarounds
- Run a script that creates a notification after the command is done:
long_command; notification.py
Extra asks
Beyond allowing for notifications, it would also be helpful if users were provided a hook. Here are some scenarios the hook can cover:
- Hitting an API to report the run length of the command (Useful for engineering systems)
- Changing the color of your smart LEDs (Think of all the things Makers could do!)
- Context aware notifications (If the script name contains 'foo' then do then, otherwise do that
Other Terminal support
- iTerm has this as a feature: https://www.iterm2.com/documentation-shell-integration.html#:~:text=Alert%20on%20next%20mark,in%20another%20window%20or%20tab.
Proposed technical implementation details (optional)
Reacted by José Miguel, Erik Kunz, Ed Rivas, Lorenzo Billi, nbros, Jonathan Piché, Alex Popov, Vlad, Cosmo, Rob Lang and 49 more
Activity
zadjii-msft commentedon Nov 22, 2022
To try and tease this apart a bit:
notify.py(or whatever) to send a notification when the build finishes.I might want to spend a hot minute syncing these two designs with each other - we definitely don't want to send a notification for BOTH "there was new output" and "that output was the next mark". I suppose if both settings are enabled, we can defer to "there was output".
Roy3838 commentedon Sep 14, 2026
Hi!
While this is open, I built a free/FOSS tool that covers this in the meantime:
https://github.com/Roy3838/Observer It ships a CLI wrapper, so something like
observe npm run buildwill ping or call you when the command exits. Runs locally, nothing leaves your machine. Any questions feel free to reach out! :D