Staying informed
Notifications, sounds, the menu-bar badge.
Last updated
Notifications#
When a chat finishes or needs you, and you're not looking at that chat:
- Banner: clicking it opens the chat. It shows the app, the chat title and the project. What the chat is asking is only included if you turn that on, because banners appear on the lock screen.
- Sound: optional.
- Per app: turn alerts on or off for Claude and for Codex separately.
- Subagents: optionally, "Subagent finished" or "Subagent failed" when a chat's subagent ends while you're in another app (Settings → Notifications → Subagent finished or failed, off to start with). See Subagents.
- Agent requests: when a chat asks Pairbar for something that waits for your approval (a second opinion, a review, a helper chat), a banner says who asks and for what, with Approve and Decline; clicking the banner opens Pairbar. The request's text is included only with Include what the chat is asking on; otherwise it says "Open Pairbar to see what it would run." It's withdrawn once you answer in Pairbar, and shown only while Notification banner is on. See Approving a request.
- From agents: a chat can send you a short notification of its own through Pairbar (at most one a minute per chat, with the chat's title under it), while Notification banner is on and Settings → Integrations → Agent actions → Notifications from agents is Allow.
Workflows notify when a run finishes, and check-ins when they stop.
Banners need the Notifications permission. macOS asks once; after that, turn it on in System Settings → Notifications → Pairbar. Settings → General → Permissions → Notifications (and the welcome) shows whether it's on, with Allow… while macOS can still ask and Open Settings… after.
Menu-bar icon#
The icon, Pairbar's lit bar, shows how many chats need you next to it. Its menu has Show or hide Pairbar (⌃⌥S), Settings…, Allow Accessibility… (only when it isn't allowed yet), Welcome…, Check for Updates…, Licence… (the lock screen while locked, otherwise Settings → Licence), Contact Support… (see Contact support), and Quit.
While Pairbar is locked (the trial has ended, see Trial, licence and updates) chat alerts are quiet.
Screen sharing#
Pairbar shows up in screenshots (Coming Soon), recordings and screen sharing like any app. To keep chat titles and questions out of a meeting, turn on Hide Pairbar from screenshots (Coming Soon) and screen sharing in Settings → About & advanced: the sidebar, quick search and the basket are then left out. Some capture (Coming Soon) tools may not honour this.
Guides and use cases for this
- GuideHow to install Pairbar and set it up on your MacInstall from the DMG, go through the welcome window, choose the optional permissions and start using the sidebar.
- GuideSet up goal checks and self-healing for your workflowsGoal checks, automatic fixes during a run, health flags, the doctor's suggested fixes, and Undo last change for Pairbar workflows.
- GuideApprove, decline and limit what Claude and Codex chats ask Pairbar to doHow agent requests reach you, how to approve or decline them, which kinds ask first, and the pause, budgets and Stop all that keep you in charge.
- Use caseGet notified when Claude Code or Codex finishes or needs your inputBanners, sounds and a count on the menu-bar icon tell you when a Claude or Codex chat finishes or needs you.
- Use caseRun several Claude Code and Codex agents in parallel without losing trackA Needs you section, live activity lines, subagent chips, worktrees and ⌃1–9 for running many agents at once.
- Use caseSee the Claude Code subagents and Codex spawned threads running inside your chatsA 👥 chip per chat counts working subagents; the list shows each one's job, agent, progress and time, and questions surface on the parent.