Glance. Don't babysit.
A black pill grows out of the notch and says what your agents are doing in one color. When something happens it blooms open for a few seconds. Hover to see every session.
Working
An orb in the agent's color breathes while it thinks and runs tools.
Needs you
An amber pulse when an agent is waiting for permission or an answer.
Done
Green stays until you look at the session, then settles.
Error
Red when a turn fails, with the reason one hover away.
Click. You're back where the agent runs.
A notification, an island row or a menu row takes you to the exact place the agent is working — not just the app.
From a terminal, ambient open jumps to the session that needs you most.
- Claude desktop appthe exact chat
- Codex appthe exact thread
- Terminal and iTerm2the exact tab
- tmux and cmuxthe exact pane
- VS Code, Cursor and othersthe project's window
Alerts only when it matters.
Banners and soft two-note chimes for the moments that need you: a question, a finished turn, a failure. One sound per state, so you know which without looking.
Ambient stays quiet while you're already in the app running the agent, skips short turns, and withdraws a banner once you've answered.
Even the Dock knows.
Light rises along the Dock in the color of what your agents are doing — visible from across the room, invisible to your work.
Works with the agents you use.
One click connects each agent. Ambient adds background hooks that run in about 15 ms, never slow your agent down, back up every file they touch, and remove only their own entries.
Claude Code
Terminal, editors and the Claude desktop app.
Codex
The CLI and the Codex app.
Gemini CLI
Every session, in any terminal.
How it works.
Ambient listens to the hooks each agent already offers. Nothing wraps your agent, and nothing watches your screen.
- 1
Connect
Open Ambient and click Connect All. It adds its own entries to each agent's hook settings, after backing the file up.
- 2
Listen
When an agent starts a turn, runs a tool, asks for permission or finishes, its hook sends one short line over a Unix socket on your Mac. In about 15 ms, in the background.
- 3
Show
Ambient keeps a state for every session and shows the most urgent: needs you, then error, then done, then working.
0 bytes
leave your Mac.
Private by design: no accounts, no network, no telemetry. Events travel over a private socket on your Mac and stay there.
Questions.
Is Ambient free?
Yes. Download it, connect your agents and use every feature.
Does it send my code or prompts anywhere?
No. Each hook reduces an event to a few short fields — agent, state, project name, a trimmed message — and sends them over a Unix socket to the app on your Mac. The app makes no network requests.
Will it slow my agent down?
No. Hooks finish in about 15 ms, run in the background for Claude Code and Codex, and always exit successfully. If Ambient isn't running, events are simply dropped.
How is Ambient different from Claude Code's built-in notifications?
Claude Code can post a desktop notification in Ghostty, Kitty and iTerm2, or ring the terminal bell elsewhere. Ambient adds a live status for every session of every agent at once, in any terminal or editor. A click takes you back to the exact tab, pane or chat, and Ambient stays quiet while you're already looking at the agent. Compare every option.
Does it work with tmux, iTerm2, VS Code and Cursor?
Yes. Ambient shows the status of an agent in any terminal or editor on your Mac, and in the Claude and Codex desktop apps. A click returns you to the exact tab in Terminal and iTerm2, the exact pane in tmux and cmux, and the project's window in VS Code, Cursor and other editors.
What does it change on my Mac?
It adds its own hook entries to ~/.claude/settings.json, ~/.codex/hooks.json and ~/.gemini/settings.json, keeps a backup of each file, and removes only its own entries when you disconnect an agent or run ambient uninstall.
How do I uninstall Ambient?
Run ambient uninstall to remove Ambient's hooks. Your other settings stay exactly as they were. Then quit Ambient from the menu bar and delete the app and the ~/.ambient folder.
Which Macs does it run on?
macOS 14 or later, on Apple silicon and Intel. It's designed for MacBooks with a notch; on other displays the island sits at the top center of the menu bar.
Do I need to sign up to download it?
No. The download starts right away. If you want an email when a new version ships, you can leave your address after downloading; that's optional. See the privacy notice.
Let your agents work.
Ambient will tell you when.
Free for macOS 14 and later.