Amplifier Feature

Stop watching the terminal.

Desktop and push notifications when Amplifier is ready for input.

Active

February 2026

The Problem

Long operations break flow

Tab Switching

You start a recipe, switch to Slack, forget to check back. Five minutes wasted.

Terminal Watching

Staring at a spinner is not productive work. Your attention is worth more.

Remote Work

SSH'd into a server. Walk away for coffee. Come back 20 minutes later wondering if it finished.

The Solution

Amplifier tells you when it's ready

⚡

Amplifier

laptop | my-project | Ready for input

Desktop alerts, terminal sequences, or push to your phone.

Cross-Platform

Works everywhere you do

🍎

macOS

osascript

🐧

Linux

notify-send

🪟

Windows / WSL

PowerShell toast

🔗

SSH / tmux / screen

OSC 777/9 sequences

            Terminal notifications use OSC 777/9 escape sequences — they work in WezTerm, iTerm2, Ghostty, Kitty, and over SSH with tmux and GNU screen passthrough.
        

Notification Methods

Desktop, mobile, or both

hooks-notify (Desktop)

Native OS notifications or terminal escape sequences. Zero external dependencies on macOS. Auto-detects SSH and terminal emulator.

# auto, terminal, or desktop
method: auto
suppress_if_focused: true
show_preview: true

hooks-notify-push (Mobile)

Push to your phone via ntfy.sh. Open-source, no signup required. Listens to notify:turn-complete event emitted by hooks-notify.

# topic from AMPLIFIER_NTFY_TOPIC env
service: ntfy
priority: default
tags: [robot]

Desktop hooks are included by default. Push is opt-in via a separate behavior.

Smart Behavior

Notifications only when they make sense

Interactive session completes

✓ Yes

You're waiting for it

Sub-agent finishes

✗ No

Has parent_id — parent handles it

Recipe step completes

✗ No

Intermediate step, not final

Recipe finishes entirely

✓ Yes

Human input needed

Terminal is focused

○ Optional

suppress_if_focused config

            Focus detection uses tmux pane state, macOS frontmost app (osascript), or Linux xdotool to determine if notification is needed.
        

Security

Privacy-first design

⚠️ ntfy.sh topics are PUBLIC

Anyone who knows your topic name can read your notifications or send messages to it.

The push module loads topics from AMPLIFIER_NTFY_TOPIC env var only (typically in ~/.amplifier/keys.env). Topic values in config files are explicitly ignored by the code.

Env-Only Secrets

Topic loaded from environment variable, never from settings.yaml. Code enforces this separation.

Self-Host Option

Set AMPLIFIER_NTFY_SERVER to point to your own ntfy instance for maximum privacy.

Easy Disable

AMPLIFIER_NOTIFY=false disables desktop notifications. Config enabled setting takes precedence.

Configuration

Rich configuration, sensible defaults

# hooks-notify config (from NotifyConfig dataclass)
enabled: true
method: auto              # auto | terminal | desktop
title: "Amplifier"
subtitle: cwd             # cwd | git | custom string
suppress_if_focused: false
min_iterations: 1
show_iteration_count: true
show_preview: true        # show last assistant message
preview_length: 100
show_device: true         # hostname in notification
show_project: true        # project name in notification
sound: false              # macOS desktop only

The auto method checks SSH_CLIENT/SSH_TTY, TMUX, TERM_PROGRAM, and terminal-specific env vars to choose the best delivery path. Message format: device | project | content.

Development snapshot

microsoft/amplifier-bundle-notify

1,286

Lines of Python

2

Hook modules

23

Files in bundle

4

Platform paths

Primary contributor: Brian Krabach (100% of visible commits) • Bundle v0.1.0 • Module v0.3.0

Sources

Research Methodology

Data as of: February 20, 2026

Feature status: Active (bundle v0.1.0, hooks-notify module v0.3.0)

Repository: microsoft/amplifier-bundle-notify (confirmed via git remote -v)

Research performed:

Bundle source read from ~/.amplifier/cache/amplifier-bundle-notify-a1c452253c0fb2e2/
Line counts: find . -name "*.py" | xargs wc -l → 1,286 total (1,039 + 236 + 11)
File count: find . -not -path "*/.git/*" -type f | wc -l → 23 files
Git log: git log --oneline → 1 commit visible (shallow clone)
Contributors: git log --format="%an" | sort | uniq -c → Brian Krabach
Platform verification: read send_macos_notification, send_linux_notification, send_wsl_notification, send_terminal_notification functions directly
Config options: extracted from NotifyConfig and PushConfig dataclasses in source

Gaps:

GitHub API blocked by org SAML — PR count and full commit history unavailable
Shallow git clone — only 1 commit visible; full development timeline unknown
CLI commands (amplifier notify) referenced in old deck but not independently verified in code

Primary contributor: Brian Krabach (100% of visible commits)

Work async. Get notified.

Include the bundle and notifications work automatically.

# In your bundle includes
includes:
  - bundle: git+https://github.com/microsoft/amplifier-bundle-notify@main

github.com/microsoft/amplifier-bundle-notify
Part of the Amplifier ecosystem