An Agent Status Light for Aider: Use Its Notification Command
Status Light costs $45 and presents a matte-black body with red, amber and green domed positions. Aider can invoke notifications when an LLM response is ready, including a configurable notifications command. The missing piece is this product's unconfirmed power, connection and control interface.
What can a desk light actually tell you about an Aider run?
At most, a verified notification can say that a response became ready for attention. It cannot prove tests passed, the Git tree is clean, the task is finished or Aider is waiting on a particular decision. A three-colour lamp compresses even that small event.
Keep Aider and the terminal as authoritative. Use the light only to invite review.
How do you drive the light with Aider's notification support?
Official configuration includes `--notifications` and `--notifications-command`, with corresponding configuration and environment options. Point the command at a small local adapter only after the actual light exposes a documented interface. Preserve the notification process's exit and error logs.
Do not scrape terminal sentences or place API keys in command arguments.
Red, amber, green: what should each mean for a terminal agent?
Use one narrow event first, such as amber for “response ready to inspect.” Reserve off or a distinct unknown condition for adapter failure. Red and green need independent verified sources before meaning failure or success; an LLM response alone supplies neither.
Add expiry so an old event cannot survive into a new repository or session.
Is a light pointless if Aider is in your visible terminal?
Often, yes. When the terminal stays in view, Aider's own output, terminal bell or desktop notification carries more detail for free. A lamp matters only across distance or peripheral attention, and only after accessibility and distraction are considered.
The Status Light should follow a working software notification prototype. Walk away if its hardware interface remains undocumented, and never let colour replace reading the prompt. Test the notification command with saved harmless input and simulate adapter failure, concurrent Aider sessions and a closed terminal. Label which repository owns the signal without revealing its name on a public camera. Clear the state when review starts and log only event type plus time. If notification support already reaches the person, do not duplicate it for decoration. Measure whether the alert is noticed from the intended chair without dominating calls or sleep. Add a manual lamp test that does not invoke Aider, plus a timeout that returns every colour to off. Restart the adapter with a queued old event and confirm it refuses to replay it. A convincing demo includes failure states, not just a happy-path colour change.