notify

Inform the user

Keep the user informed of what the agent is doing.

REQUIRED: message (one-line text)

When to notify

Every step that produces effects. Editing code, running builds, checking output, fixing errors — always notify. Pure reads (find, read, ls, grep) are passive lookups and do not warrant notification.

• Before every mutating tool call (edit, bash with side effects, write)
• After every tool call that changes state or produces output worth surfacing
• On errors and unexpected output
• On completion

Message format

• message: One-line text describing the action. Max 70 chars.
• Never include IDs, codes, hashes, filenames, or specific references — keep it high-level.

{"name": "notify", "input": {"message": "Running test suite"}}

Workflow examples

Implementation task

1. notify("Editing config file") — before editing
2. notify("Running typecheck") — before running
3. notify("Typecheck passed") — after results
4. notify("Done!") — on completion

Research task

1. notify("Starting research") — before web searches begin
2. notify("Done, writing answer") — when transitioning to output

Debugging session

1. notify("Investigating the issue") — at start
2. notify("Found the cause, applying fix") — on breakthrough
3. notify("Fix verified, done!") — on completion

Best practices

• Skip notifications for passive lookups (find, read, ls, grep)
• Notify before mutations and after state-changing results
• Keep messages short and specific