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Privilege and Notifications ​

Desktop notifications, bell behaviour, focus / attention requests, and the security toggles that gate what a program in the terminal is allowed to do.

For visual task state — tab badges, the Dock spinner, and OSC 9;4 progress — see Progress State.

Desktop notifications (OSC 9 / OSC 777 / OSC 99) ​

A program can pop a system notification with one printf:

bash
printf '\e]9;Build finished\a'                       # OSC 9 — body only
printf '\e]777;notify;Deploy;Production is live\a'   # OSC 777 — title + body
printf '\e]99;;Build finished\e\\'                   # OSC 99 — simplest (single chunk)

OSC 9 mirrors the iTerm2 convention (body string). OSC 777 (urxvt-style) adds a title. OSC 99 is the kitty notification protocol — richer structured payload (urgency, base64 encoding, chunked transmission, replace-by-id, capability query). Otty maps all three to a native macOS notification.

For maximum compatibility, programs typically emit OSC 99 first and fall back to OSC 9 / 777 on terminals that don't recognise it.

Whether shell programs may post notifications at all is gated by Notification — Shell Controlled (Settings → Shell, on by default). Turn it off to ignore notification OSCs.

Notification Example

Bell ​

BEL (0x07) — the byte that traditionally rang the terminal bell — plays the system alert sound (NSSound.beep()). It is gated by Sound — Shell Controlled (Settings → Shell, on by default); turn it off to silence the bell entirely.

Otty does not implement a visual (flash) bell — the bell is audio-only. A related toggle, Sound on Error Exit (Settings → Shell, off by default), beeps when a command exits with a non-zero status (requires shell integration).

Bounce Dock Icon ​

When a notification fires while Otty isn't the active app, Otty bounces the Dock icon (an NSApplication.requestUserAttention request) — handy for long-running build / deploy scripts:

bash
make deploy && printf '\e]9;Deploy ok\a'

This is on by default — toggle it under Settings → Shell → Bounce Dock Icon.

Unlike Ghostty, where the Dock bounce is a bell-features component tied to BEL, Otty drives the bounce from the notification OSCs (9 / 777 / 99) rather than the bell.

By default macOS suppresses banners while Otty is already the foreground app. Notify While Foreground (Settings → Shell) overrides that: always shows banners even when Otty is frontmost, and tab-unfocused shows one only when the notification comes from a tab that isn't the active one.

System permission ​

Every banner is ultimately gated by macOS itself — a per-app permission that lives in System Settings → Notifications → Otty, not inside Otty. If it's off (or the banner style is set to None), none of the toggles below do anything. The System Permission row at the top of Settings → Shell → Notification shows Otty's current status (a green dot when allowed, amber/red when banners won't appear) and the Open System Settings button jumps straight to that pane. The status refreshes on its own when you switch back to Otty, so you can flip the permission and return to confirm the dot turned green.

Notification Options ​

All of these live under Settings → Shell (the same toggles also appear in the Privileges menu and command palette). They are per-pane defaults — a new pane inherits them, and shell-integration-driven ones need shell integration on.

notification setting

ToggleDefaultFires when
Notify on Finishoffany command finishes (exit 0)
Notify on Errorona command exits non-zero
Notify on Watch Finishonan otty watch-wrapped command finishes
Notification — Shell Controlledonallow shell apps to post notifications (OSC 9 / 777 / 99)
Notify While Foregroundoffbanner policy while Otty is frontmost (off / always / tab-unfocused)
Bounce Dock Icononbounce the Dock when a notification arrives and Otty isn't active
Sound on Error Exitoffbeep on a non-zero exit
Sound — Shell Controlledonallow shell apps to ring the bell (BEL)

Code-agent notifications ​

Coding agents (Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode) report task state over IPC, so these fire without shell integration (Settings → Shell):

  • Code Agent — Notify When Task Completes (on by default) — notification when the agent finishes a task and goes idle.
  • Code Agent — Notify When Awaiting Input (on by default) — notification when the agent is waiting on your approval or input.

For the matching badges (and otty watch:claude to block a script until an agent is idle), see Progress State → Watching code-agent tasks.

Privilege Settings ​

Escape sequences are powerful — a program (or a hostile cat of a crafted file) can try to read your clipboard, query the window title, or change it. Otty gates the risky ones. These defaults are conservative; loosen them per your trust level.

Title (Settings → Advanced)

  • Title Report (off by default) — let apps read the window title back via OSC 21 / XTWINOPS. Off by default: a program that can both set and read the title can smuggle data out of a pane, so reporting stays disabled unless you opt in.
  • Title — Shell Controlled (on by default) — let apps change the tab / window title (OSC 0 / 2).

Clipboard (Settings → Advanced)

  • Clipboard — Shell Controlled (on by default) — master switch for OSC 52 clipboard access.
  • Clipboard Read (ask by default) — OSC 52 read (a program pasting from your clipboard): ask / allow / deny. Default ask because clipboard read is the bigger exfiltration risk.
  • Clipboard Write (allow by default) — OSC 52 write (a program copying to your clipboard): ask / allow / deny.

Secure keyboard entry (Settings → Controls)

  • Auto Secure Input (on by default) — automatically turn on macOS Secure Keyboard Entry when the active session is in canonical-no-echo mode (the classic sudo / ssh / login password-prompt signature), so other apps can't read your keystrokes. Disable to drive it only via Edit → Secure Input.
  • Secure Input Indicator (on by default) — show a title-bar pill while Secure Keyboard Entry is active.

IPC (Settings → Advanced)

  • IPC Allow Send Keys (off by default) — let IPC clients inject keystrokes into sessions.
  • IPC Allow Sensitive Sessions (off by default) — let IPC send-keys / capture reach SSH / sudo sessions.

See also ​

Otty

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