A Desk Gadget That Shows Build Status

The Status Light ($45) is a matte black desk unit with three domed lenses, red at the top, amber in the middle, green at the bottom. It is the simplest desk gadget for showing whether something is running, waiting or done. The important thing first: it does not know. It has no idea what your build is doing. It changes because a script you wrote at the end of that build told it to. Everything below assumes you are willing to write that script.

Is this the same as a meeting busy light?

Same idea, completely different source. A busy light is driven by your calendar or your microphone, so it works the moment you plug it in: the software that owns those already knows your state and already publishes it. A build has no equivalent. Nothing on your machine broadcasts the fact that a build finished to anyone who wants to listen, so you have to be the one who says it. That is the biggest surprise for people arriving from busy lights, and it is why those are a five minute setup and this is not.

What has to exist before the gadget is useful?

One event, at the end of the run, that you can hang a command on. In practice that is a shell wrapper around the build, a last step in your task runner, or a hook if your tool provides one. If you can get a command to run when the build finishes, you can drive any of these devices. If you cannot, no gadget will rescue you.

The second event, worth more than the first, is the moment something is waiting on your input. Some tools emit that, some do not, and no piece of hardware can invent an event that was never sent. Check before you spend, because a two-state light is a perfectly good thing to own but a smaller thing than you may be picturing.

Light, screen, or face?

The Status Light ($45) is the most legible from across a room and the least informative up close, because it holds exactly one fact. The Desk Terminal ($79) is a miniature computer styled after a 1984 all-in-one with a small colour screen, so it can show words rather than a colour, which matters when several things run at once and a single lamp would have to average them. The Agent Pet ($45) is a blocky orange pixel robot about the height of an espresso cup with a square face, and it shows states as expressions. It is the one people keep because they like looking at it.

All three carry the same requirement. You supply the signal. The only difference is what it looks like once you have.

What if several builds run at once?

Then one lamp has to average them, and the averaging is a decision you make rather than one the hardware makes for you. The usual rule is worst state wins: if anything is waiting on you, show amber, because that is the state costing you time. If you would rather see them separately, use a screen and print a line per job. Our suggested mapping is red for running, amber for waiting on you, green for finished, but nothing stops you assigning them the other way round.

When should I not buy one?

If your builds finish in seconds, you will never look up in time and the gadget becomes decoration. If you work in one window and never leave it, a terminal bell does the same job for nothing. And if writing a small script around your build sounds like a chore rather than a pleasant Saturday, that feeling will not improve once the parcel arrives.

The wiring options are laid out in agent state on your desk.