Notifications & Monitoring

When you’re running agents across multiple projects, you need to know when something needs your attention — without constantly checking each board. Kangentic uses native desktop notifications, sidebar badges, and auto-focus to keep you informed.

Desktop Notifications

Kangentic sends native OS notifications when an agent needs attention and you can’t already see it — either the window is minimized/unfocused, or a different project is active.

Notification Triggers

Event	Notification Body
Agent idle	Agent has stopped and may need input (includes permission prompts)
Session crash	Agent process exited with a non-zero exit code
Plan completion	Agent finished planning and auto-moved to the next column

The task title is the notification title, and the project name is the body.

Click Behavior

Clicking a notification:

1. Brings the Kangentic window to the foreground
2. Switches to the correct project
3. Opens the task detail dialog for that task

This makes notifications actionable — one click takes you directly to the agent that needs attention.

Taskbar Flash

On Windows, the taskbar icon also flashes when a notification fires, so you’ll notice even if you miss the popup.

Cooldown

A 10-second per-session cooldown prevents repeated notifications from the same agent. If an agent goes idle, fires a notification, then goes idle again within 10 seconds, no second notification is sent.

Note

Desktop notifications are controlled by the notifications.desktop.onAgentIdle setting. It’s enabled by default but can be turned off in Settings under the Behavior tab. You can also configure separate toast (in-app) notifications — see Configuration Reference for the full list.

Idle Badges

The sidebar shows all your projects in a list. When an agent goes idle on a project you’re not currently viewing, an idle badge appears next to that project’s name. This tells you at a glance that an agent has stopped — it may have finished, hit a permission prompt, or encountered an error.

Click the project to switch to it and see what the agent needs.

Auto-Focus Idle Session

When enabled, Kangentic automatically switches to an agent’s terminal tab when that agent goes idle. This means you’ll immediately see what the agent is waiting for — whether it’s asking a question, requesting permission, or showing its final output.

This behavior is controlled by the autoFocusIdleSession setting (disabled by default). You can turn it on in Settings if you want the terminal to auto-switch when an agent goes idle. When disabled, idle agents show an amber tab indicator instead.

Real-Time Card Indicators

Every task card on your board shows the agent’s current state with real-time updates:

Indicator	Meaning
Pulsing spinner	Agent is actively thinking or running tools
Static icon	Agent is idle — finished, waiting, or needs input
Error highlight	Agent encountered an error
”Queued” label	Waiting for a concurrent session slot to open

Multi-Project Awareness

The combination of desktop notifications, idle badges, taskbar flash, and auto-focus means you can run agents across several projects and trust that you’ll be notified when attention is needed. A typical workflow:

1. Set up tasks across 2–3 projects
2. Work on your active project while agents run in the background
3. Notice the notification or idle badge when a background agent needs you
4. Click the notification (or project in the sidebar) to switch and respond
5. Return to your active project

See Multi-Project Support for more on managing multiple projects.