Know who is waiting

When an agent stops to ask you something, Hivemind turns its tile amber, counts it on the bell and can notify you. This page shows each signal and how to tune it.

Set up Hivemind on this computer so my phone gets a push notification whenever an agent needs me.

1. Check Hivemind is installed: `hive --version` prints a version.
2. Ask me whether I use ntfy (the free app at `https://ntfy.sh`) or another service that takes a plain-text POST. For ntfy, suggest a long random topic name and tell me to subscribe to it in the ntfy app on my phone. Wait until I say I have.
3. Run `hive push set https://ntfy.sh/<topic>`. To also hear when an agent finishes replying, add `--events input.requested,turn.ended`.
4. Run `hive push test`. Ask me whether the phone showed "test push from hivemind".
5. Run `hive push status` and show me where pushes go.

At the end, tell me the topic, which events push, and that `hive push off` stops it.

REFERENCE https://hivemind.griiken.com/guide/know-who-is-waiting.md

The signalsCopy Anchor Link

Amber always means a person is being waited on. The other colours are on Agent states.

Read what each row saysCopy Anchor Link

Under the name of each agent and terminal in the Layers panel, a second line says what its screen last showed, such as 214 tests passed. When an agent needs you, the line says what for, in amber:

For an agent that keeps its own conversation, such as Claude, the line is the first line of what it last said, or the tool it last used and what about, as your phone's Home shows it. For an agent that runs on another computer, the line is what its screen last showed.

A terminal's line leaves out its prompt and what you type there, so it shows what the last command printed. A few rows are the exception:

• A question a command waits on, such as Overwrite b? [y/N] or a password prompt, is the line on Linux and macOS. On Windows it is left out with the prompt.
• A prompt that takes two rows is left out whole when its second row starts with ❯ or a corner such as ╰─, as starship's and powerlevel10k's do. Another prompt of two rows shows its top row, unless your shell marks where its prompt starts, as shell integration does (the OSC 133 marks).
• A question your shell asks itself, such as read -p, is left out with the prompt.

Someone who joined your workspace sees the same lines under your agents and terminals in their own Layers panel. hive ctl agents prints each agent's line too.

To choose which rows show a line, open the Layers panel's View menu, then Lines: All (every agent and terminal), Needs you or Off.

Allow or deny from the rowCopy Anchor Link

When an agent asks your permission to run a short command of one line, its row and its toast show Deny and Allow under the line. Press one to answer, as you would in its tile.

• When you might not see all of the command there, the row shows Review instead: the command is longer than the row or than 160 characters, has more than one line, or holds a tab, a control or invisible character, or a run of spaces. Press Review to read the whole command, its lines as the agent wrote them, then Deny or Allow. A review shows up to 4,000 characters, and says when the command may be longer: read the rest in its tile.
• When a new request takes the place of the one you were reading, its buttons take no press for half a second, and an open review closes and says the request changed.
• A custom view that shows agents' lines offers only Review, which names the tile.
• Hover over a row to read its whole line, or the whole command it waits on.
• If someone answered first, or the agent stopped waiting, your answer does nothing and a notice says it was answered already.
• An agent that tells Hivemind no more than "Permission" shows no buttons: answer it in its tile.

A toast for an agent that finished says its line, such as what Claude last said.

Jump to the next oneCopy Anchor Link

1. Press the bell at the top of the Layers panel.
2. Check: the next agent that needs you is selected and shown.
3. Answer it in its tile: choose an option, type a reply, or press Approve plan for a plan.

Press the bell again for the next one. Its tooltip says how many are left.

Choose what notifies youCopy Anchor Link

1. Open Settings → Notifications.
2. Under Notify me about, switch on what you want: Needs you, Finished or Failed.
3. Under Delivery, choose In-app toasts, Native OS popups, or both. In-app toasts also covers what a screen reader says.
4. Check: the next agent that needs you shows a toast.

With several windows open you get one popup per agent, not one per window. When several agents finish or need you at once, the first shows its own popup and the rest within a second and a half gather into one, such as 9 more agents finished. Clicking it opens the first of them.

Show commands and questions makes a popup say what the agent waits on (Bash: npm test) or the last line its terminal showed. It is off by default: a command on screen may hold a password, and a popup can show on a locked screen. A push to your phone never carries it.

Do Not Disturb mutes Finished and Failed (toasts, popups, sounds and the spoken line) between two times you set. Needs you still reaches you.

Hear itCopy Anchor Link

1. Open Settings → Notifications and, under Sounds, switch on Play a sound.
2. Choose the moments that play one: Needs you is on, Finished and Failed are off until you switch them on. Play beside each lets you hear it.
3. Set the Volume.
4. Check: Play beside Needs you adds a line to Recent that says played.

Agents that change together play one sound, the most urgent of them: needs you, then failed, then finished. At most one sound plays every 1.2 seconds, in the window you are at. A finished agent you are looking at plays nothing. An applied theme with its own sounds plays them instead, never louder than the app's own sounds and cut to 3 seconds, and Recent names the theme. When a theme's sound cannot be played, the app's own plays, and Recent says why.

Recent lists the last ten moments: how many agents (asked for for a sound you played yourself), whether a sound played (or why not) and how many popups showed. If it says blocked: suspended, click or type in the window once: a window may not start a sound before you have used it.

From a terminal, hive notifications show, set, play and recent do the same (CLI reference). Only you can change or play sounds: an agent that runs hive notifications set or play is refused.

Snooze a rowCopy Anchor Link

To hide an agent from the Layers panel for a while, open its row's ⋮ menu and choose Snooze: 30 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours or Tomorrow at 9:00.

A snoozed row waits under Snoozed. It comes back early as soon as its agent needs you. Wake now in the same menu brings it back at once.

Get a push on your phoneCopy Anchor Link

Check it workedCopy Anchor Link

• Start an agent and ask it to do something that needs permission.
• Its tile turns amber and the bell shows 1.
• With notifications on, a toast or popup names the agent.

If it didn'tCopy Anchor Link

RelatedCopy Anchor Link

• Agent states
• Answer agents from your phone
• Keyboard shortcuts

Last validated for Hivemind 2026.10.3.