# Notifications and status

> Follow what each conversation is doing, answer requests from a desktop notification, and choose which events notify you.

Neoo tells you what every conversation is doing without opening it: a status in the sidebar, live output while commands run, and desktop notifications when an agent finishes, fails or needs you.

## Conversation status

Each conversation in the sidebar shows its current state:

| Status | Meaning |
| --- | --- |
| **Working** | The agent is running a turn, or one of its sub-agents is still working. |
| **Approval** | The agent waits for you to allow an action. |
| **Question** | The agent asked you a question. |
| **Waiting** | The answer is ready but background work (sub-agents, background shells or terminals) is still running. |
| **Limited** | A provider usage limit stopped the turn. |
| **Failed** | The last turn stopped on an error. It stays until the next successful answer. |
| **Interrupted** | Neoo stopped while the turn was running. You can resume it. |
| **Done** | The agent finished and you have not opened the answer yet. |

Stopping a turn yourself never shows **Failed**.

## Long commands and background work

While a command runs, its output appears live in the conversation and in the work log on the right, together with how long it has been running. With Codex on Windows, most commands go through Neoo's PowerShell tool instead; their output appears when they finish.

When an agent starts a command in the background — a dev server, a watcher, a long build — it gets its own card in the work log with the latest output and a **Stop** button. With Codex, background terminals keep running after the agent answers: the conversation shows **Waiting** and the message field reads **Reply ready — 1 background task(s) still running**. You can reply at any time; stopping the wait stops the background terminals.

### Background agents

When an agent delegates work to sub-agents, a **Background agents** bar appears right above the message field, for example **2 background agents**. Expand it to see one line per sub-agent with what it is doing: **is working**, **is awaiting instruction** or **is awaiting approval**. Hover a line for its model and how long it has been running; select it to follow its work.

Only sub-agents that are still running are listed: a sub-agent leaves the bar as soon as it finishes, fails or is stopped, and the bar disappears with the last one. Its result stays in the conversation. The stop button, **Stop all subagents in this chat**, stops every sub-agent still running without stopping the conversation itself.

## Desktop notifications

Neoo sends a desktop notification when:

- an agent finishes a turn (**Response ready**);
- a turn fails (**Turn failed**);
- an agent needs your approval;
- an agent asks you a question;
- a monitoring check finishes or fails.

Notifications for the conversation you are looking at are skipped while the Neoo window is focused, if **Quiet while Neoo is focused** is on.

### Act from the notification

On Windows, the notification itself has buttons:

| Notification | Buttons |
| --- | --- |
| Approval request | **Approve**, **Approve for session**, **Decline** |
| Question | **Answer** opens the question |
| Response ready | A reply field and **Send**: your reply starts the next turn without opening Neoo |
| Turn failed | **Open** |

Approval and question notifications stay on screen until you act. When you answer the request anywhere else — in the conversation, on your phone or in Remote — Neoo removes the notification. Clicking the body of any notification opens the conversation.

On macOS and Linux, notifications open the conversation but do not show these buttons.

### Choose what notifies you

Go to `Settings → Notifications`:

- **Desktop: response ready**, **Desktop: turn failed**, **Desktop: permission required**, **Desktop: question** and **Desktop: monitoring finished** turn each kind on or off.
- **Quiet while Neoo is focused** skips notifications for the conversation you are viewing.
- **Include a preview** adds the end of the answer, the error or the requested action to the notification.
- **Notification sound** picks the sound: **System default**, **Chime**, **Ping**, **Pop**, **Alert** or **None**. Choosing a sound plays a sample notification.

Every notification is also kept in the notification center (bell icon), including failures and questions.

## Taskbar badge and tray menu

The Neoo icon shows how many conversations need you: answers you have not opened yet, failed turns, and conversations waiting for an approval, a question or a plan.

- On Windows, a number appears on the taskbar icon (**9+** above nine). It turns red when an approval, a question or a plan is waiting.
- On macOS, the number appears as the Dock badge.

Right-click the Neoo icon in the notification area (Windows) or open the menu bar icon to see your conversations in three sections: **Running**, **Needs attention** and **Recent**, three per section with the rest under **More**. Select one to open it. Hovering the icon shows a summary such as *2 running · 1 need you*.

## Next steps

- [Permissions and approvals](permissions-and-approvals.md)
- [Monitoring](monitoring.md)
- [Notifications on your phone](../mobile/notifications.md)

Source: https://vatoide.com/docs/agents/notifications-and-status