notify

README

notify

Never miss a finished build again. Whether you're at your desk or grabbing coffee — notify knows and reaches you the right way: a chime when you're present, a Discord ping when you're not.

A single binary, zero-dependency notification engine for the command line. Chain sounds, speech, toast popups, and Discord messages into pipelines — all configured in one JSON file.

What is this for?

Long-running terminal commands finish silently. notify gives you instant feedback:

notify run -- make build

Or chain it manually for more control:

make build && notify ready || notify error
kubectl rollout status deploy/api; notify done

Installation

Pre-built binaries

Download the latest binary for your platform from GitHub Releases. Place the binary somewhere on your PATH and copy notify-config.example.json as notify-config.json next to it.

From source

go install github.com/Mavwarf/notify/cmd/notify@latest

Design

• Written in Go for easy cross-compilation and single-binary distribution.
• Config-driven — define notification pipelines as JSON. Each action combines sound, speech, toast, and Discord steps.
• Built-in sounds — 7 generated tones (success, error, warning, etc.) created programmatically as sine-wave patterns.
• Text-to-speech — uses OS-native TTS engines (Windows SAPI, macOS say, Linux espeak).
• Toast notifications — native desktop notifications on all platforms (Windows Toast API, macOS osascript, Linux notify-send).
• Discord webhooks — post messages to a Discord channel via webhook, no external dependencies (just net/http).
• AFK detection — conditionally run steps based on whether the user is at their desk or away. Play a sound when present, send a Discord message when AFK.
• Quiet hours — time-based "hours:X-Y" condition suppresses loud steps at night and routes to silent channels instead.
• Cross-platform — uses oto for native audio output on Windows (WASAPI), macOS (Core Audio), and Linux (ALSA).

Architecture

cmd/
  notify/
    main.go              CLI entry point, flag parsing, AFK wiring
    notify-config.example.json  Example config file
internal/
  audio/
    sounds.go            Generated sound definitions and PCM synthesis
    player.go            Playback engine (generated tones)
  config/
    config.go            Config loading and profile/action resolution
  discord/
    discord.go           Discord webhook integration (POST to channel)
  idle/
    idle_windows.go      User idle time via GetLastInputInfo (Win32)
    idle_darwin.go       User idle time via ioreg HIDIdleTime
    idle_linux.go        User idle time via xprintidle
  runner/
    runner.go            Step executor (dispatches to audio/speech/toast/discord)
  eventlog/
    eventlog.go          Append-only invocation log (~/.notify.log)
  tmpl/
    tmpl.go              Template variable expansion ({profile}, {command}, etc.)
  shell/
    escape_windows.go    PowerShell string escaping
  speech/
    say_windows.go       TTS via PowerShell System.Speech
    say_darwin.go        TTS via macOS say command
    say_linux.go         TTS via espeak-ng / espeak
  toast/
    toast_windows.go     Windows Toast Notification API
    toast_darwin.go      macOS osascript notifications
    toast_linux.go       Linux notify-send

Usage

notify [options] [profile] <action>
notify run [options] [profile] -- <command...>
notify list                            # List all profiles and actions
notify version                         # Show version and build date
notify help                            # Show help

Options

Flag	Description
--volume, -v	Override volume, 0-100 (default: config or 100)
--config, -c	Path to notify-config.json

Config file

notify looks for notify-config.json in this order:

1. --config <path> (explicit)
2. notify-config.json next to the binary
3. ~/.config/notify/notify-config.json (Linux/macOS) or %APPDATA%\notify\notify-config.json (Windows)

Config format

{
  "config": {
    "afk_threshold_seconds": 300,
    "default_volume": 100,
    "credentials": {
      "discord_webhook": "https://discord.com/api/webhooks/YOUR_ID/YOUR_TOKEN"
    }
  },
  "profiles": {
    "default": {
      "ready": {
        "steps": [
          { "type": "sound", "sound": "success", "when": "hours:8-22" },
          { "type": "say", "text": "{command} finished in {Duration}", "when": "run" },
          { "type": "say", "text": "Ready!", "when": "direct" },
          { "type": "toast", "message": "Ready!", "when": "afk" },
          { "type": "toast", "message": "Ready!", "when": "hours:22-8" },
          { "type": "discord", "text": "Ready!", "when": "afk" }
        ]
      }
    },
    "boss": {
      "ready": {
        "steps": [
          { "type": "sound", "sound": "notification", "volume": 90 },
          { "type": "say", "text": "Boss is ready" },
          { "type": "toast", "title": "Boss", "message": "Ready to go" }
        ]
      }
    }
  }
}

• Two top-level keys: "config" for global options, "profiles" for notification pipelines.
• Each profile maps action names to { "steps": [...] }. "default" is the fallback profile.
• Step types: sound (play a built-in sound), say (text-to-speech), toast (desktop notification), discord (post to Discord channel via webhook).
• Volume priority: per-step volume > CLI --volume > config "default_volume" > 100.
• Toast title defaults to the profile name if omitted.
• Template variables: use {profile} in say text, toast title/message, or discord text to inject the runtime profile name, or {Profile} for title case (e.g. boss → Boss). When using notify run, {command}, {duration} (compact: 2m15s), and {Duration} (spoken: 2 minutes and 15 seconds) are also available. Use {Duration} in say steps for natural speech output. This is especially useful with the default fallback — a single action definition can produce different messages depending on which profile name was passed on the CLI.
• sound and say steps run sequentially (shared audio pipeline). All other steps (toast, discord, etc.) fire in parallel immediately.

Available sounds

Name	Description
warning	Two-tone alternating warning signal
success	Ascending major chord chime
error	Low descending buzz indicating failure
info	Single clean informational beep
alert	Rapid high-pitched attention signal
notification	Gentle two-note doorbell chime
blip	Ultra-short confirmation blip

Credentials

Remote notification steps (like discord) need credentials stored in the "credentials" object inside "config":

{
  "config": {
    "credentials": {
      "discord_webhook": "https://discord.com/api/webhooks/YOUR_ID/YOUR_TOKEN"
    }
  },
  "profiles": { ... }
}

To get a Discord webhook URL: Server Settings → Integrations → Webhooks → New Webhook → Copy Webhook URL.

Discord notifications

The discord step type posts a message to a Discord channel via webhook. Especially useful with "when": "afk" to reach you when you're away:

{ "type": "discord", "text": "{Profile} build is ready", "when": "afk" }

The text field supports template variables ({profile}, {Profile}, and {command}/{duration} in run mode). Discord steps run in parallel (they don't block the audio pipeline).

AFK detection

Steps can be conditionally filtered with a "when" condition. AFK conditions use idle time (no keyboard/mouse input); invocation conditions distinguish notify run from direct calls:

when value	Step runs when...
(omitted)	Always (default, backwards compatible)
"present"	User is active (idle time below threshold)
"afk"	User is away (idle time at or above threshold)
"run"	Invoked via notify run (command wrapper)
"direct"	Invoked directly (not via notify run)
"hours:X-Y"	Current hour is within range (24h local time)

Set the threshold (in seconds) in "config". Default is 300 (5 minutes):

{
  "config": { "afk_threshold_seconds": 300 },
  "profiles": {
    "default": {
      "ready": {
        "steps": [
          { "type": "sound", "sound": "success" },
          { "type": "say", "text": "Ready!", "when": "present" },
          { "type": "toast", "title": "AFK", "message": "Ready!", "when": "afk" }
        ]
      }
    }
  }
}

Idle detection is platform-native:

• Windows: GetLastInputInfo Win32 API
• macOS: ioreg HIDIdleTime
• Linux: xprintidle (must be installed)

If idle time cannot be determined (e.g. xprintidle not installed), notify fails open and treats the user as present.

Quiet hours

Use "hours:X-Y" to restrict steps to certain hours of the day (24-hour local time). Useful for suppressing loud notifications at night:

{
  "steps": [
    { "type": "sound", "sound": "success", "when": "hours:8-22" },
    { "type": "toast", "message": "Build done!", "when": "hours:22-8" }
  ]
}

• hours:8-22 — runs when the hour is >= 8 and < 22
• hours:22-8 — cross-midnight: runs when hour >= 22 or < 8
• Invalid specs are skipped (fail-closed) with a stderr warning

Lookup logic

1. Try profiles[profile][action]
2. If not found, fall back to profiles["default"][action]
3. If neither exists, error

Command wrapper (notify run)

Wrap any command to get automatic notifications on completion:

notify run -- make build              # default profile, "ready" or "error"
notify run boss -- cargo test         # boss profile
notify run -v 50 -- npm run build     # with volume override

notify run executes the command, measures its duration, then triggers ready on exit code 0 or error on non-zero. The -- separator is required to distinguish notify options from the wrapped command.

Additional template variables are available in run mode:

Variable	Description	Example
{command}	The wrapped command string	make build
{duration}	Compact elapsed time	2m15s
{Duration}	Spoken elapsed time (for TTS)	2 minutes and 15 seconds

Use {Duration} in say steps for natural speech, {duration} in toast/discord for compact display.

Steps can be limited to run mode with "when": "run", or excluded from it with "when": "direct":

{ "type": "say", "text": "{command} finished in {Duration}", "when": "run" },
{ "type": "say", "text": "Ready!", "when": "direct" }

Examples

notify ready                      # Run "ready" from the default profile
notify default ready              # Same as above (explicit default)
notify boss ready                 # Sound + speech + toast notification
notify -v 50 ready                # Run at 50% volume
notify -c myconfig.json dev done  # Use a specific config file
notify run -- make build          # Wrap a command, auto ready/error
notify run boss -- cargo test     # Wrap with a specific profile

Event log

Every notify invocation is logged to ~/.notify.log for history and debugging. Only steps that actually ran are logged (steps filtered out by AFK detection are omitted). A blank line separates each invocation:

2026-02-20T14:30:05+01:00  profile=boss  action=ready  steps=sound,say,toast  afk=false
2026-02-20T14:30:05+01:00    step[1] sound  sound=notification
2026-02-20T14:30:05+01:00    step[2] say  text="Boss is ready"
2026-02-20T14:30:05+01:00    step[3] toast  title="Boss" message="Ready to go"

2026-02-20T14:35:12+01:00  profile=default  action=ready  steps=sound,toast  afk=true
2026-02-20T14:35:12+01:00    step[1] sound  sound=success
2026-02-20T14:35:12+01:00    step[2] toast  title="AFK" message="Ready!"

Template variables ({profile}, {Profile}, {command}, {duration}, etc.) are expanded in the log so you see the actual text that was spoken or displayed. Logging is best-effort — errors are printed to stderr but never fail the command.

Building

Prerequisites

• Go 1.24 or later
• CMake 3.16 or later (optional — you can also use go build directly)

With Go directly

go build -o output/notify ./cmd/notify

With CMake

cmake -B build
cmake --build build

The binary is placed in the output/ directory.

Cross-compilation (via CMake)

Target	Platform
build-notify-linux-amd64	Linux (x86_64)
build-notify-linux-arm64	Linux (ARM64)
build-notify-windows-amd64	Windows (x86_64)
build-notify-darwin-amd64	macOS (Intel)
build-notify-darwin-arm64	macOS (Apple Silicon)

cmake -B build
cmake --build build --target build-notify-darwin-arm64

Build all platforms:

cmake --build build --target build-notify-all

Install

cmake -B build
cmake --install build --prefix /usr/local

Platform notes

Feature	Windows	macOS	Linux
Audio playback	WASAPI (built-in)	Core Audio (CGO)	ALSA (libasound2-dev)
Text-to-speech	System.Speech (built-in)	say (built-in)	espeak-ng or espeak
Toast notifications	Toast API (Win 10+)	osascript (built-in)	notify-send (libnotify)
Discord webhook	net/http (built-in)	net/http (built-in)	net/http (built-in)

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for setup instructions and guidelines.

License

MIT