A Desk Signal When a PR Needs Your Review
The matte finish of Status Light surrounds red, amber and green domed lenses. A periodic review-queue query could feed that shape, although the listed product facts do not promise API, USB or network control.
How do you query your review queue automatically?
The official GitHub CLI supports searching open pull requests where review is requested from the authenticated user. Request structured fields such as repository, number, title, update time and URL, then filter to the organizations and repositories that belong on the desk signal.
Use a read-only credential where practical and store it through the CLI's supported authentication path. Cache pull-request identifiers so the script can distinguish a stable queue from a newly requested review. An API error produces unknown, not an empty queue.
How should the light express the queue?
Amber can mean at least one eligible review is waiting. Green can mean a successful recent query found none, while red should be reserved for a separate urgent policy such as a specifically labelled blocking review. Keep the count and oldest request age in a terminal or small dashboard.
Do not make a cleared light imply that a review was approved. Once a reviewer submits a review, GitHub no longer considers that person a requested reviewer, but the pull request may still need other work.
How do you stop it nagging outside work hours?
Apply quiet hours locally after the queue is calculated. Mute physical output while retaining the underlying records, then perform a fresh query when quiet time ends. Holidays, travel and multiple time zones make calendar-aware schedules more humane than a hard-coded daily assumption.
Add a manual mute with a visible expiry. A permanent silent toggle becomes a hidden broken notification system.
Does this actually shorten review turnaround?
It might, but the product has no order or user evidence that proves it. Measure the request-to-first-review time before and after a trial, along with interruption cost and the number of stale alerts. Stop if the signal creates more context switching than useful reviews.
The Status Light offers an ambient three-colour form only if its real input can be controlled. Build the queue reader against saved CLI output, test authentication failure and quiet-hour transitions, then connect hardware through a documented adapter. Team requests require a policy for membership and repositories, since a broad team queue can be much larger than one person's actionable work. Exclude drafts if the team does not review them, retain direct links in the detail output and use the request's current server state rather than a notification email. Recheck the queue after resuming from sleep before showing any colour.