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Notifications (experimental)

Gemini CLI can send system notifications to alert you when a session completes or when it needs your attention, such as when it's waiting for you to approve a tool call.

Note: This is a preview feature currently under active development. Preview features may be available on the Preview channel or may need to be enabled under /settings.

Notifications are particularly useful when running long-running tasks or using Plan Mode, letting you switch to other windows while Gemini CLI works in the background.

Requirements​

Currently, system notifications are only supported on macOS.

Terminal support​

The CLI uses the OSC 9 terminal escape sequence to trigger system notifications. This is supported by several modern terminal emulators. If your terminal does not support OSC 9 notifications, Gemini CLI falls back to a system alert sound to get your attention.

Enable notifications​

Notifications are disabled by default. You can enable them using the /settings command or by updating your settings.json file.

  1. Open the settings dialog by typing /settings in an interactive session.
  2. Navigate to the General category.
  3. Toggle the Enable Notifications setting to On.

Alternatively, add the following to your settings.json:

{
  "general": {
    "enableNotifications": true
  }
}

Types of notifications​

Gemini CLI sends notifications for the following events:

  • Action required: Triggered when the model is waiting for user input or tool approval. This helps you know when the CLI has paused and needs you to intervene.
  • Session complete: Triggered when a session finishes successfully. This is useful for tracking the completion of automated tasks.

Next steps​