### Summary The VSCode native extension currently has no way to notify the user when Claude needs attention (permission approval, task completion, waiting for input). The only indicators are: - A colored dot on the editor tab (🔵 pending / 🟠 done) - "✱ Claude Code" text in the status bar Both are easy to miss when focus is on another window or monitor. ### Request Add a setting to emit VSCode/system-level notifications on key events, e.g.: - `claude-code.notifications.enabled`: boolean - `cl

[VSCode Extension] Add native system/toast notifications when Claude needs attention

Status Open

Maintainer reply None cached

Activity 10 comments · opened May 8, 2026

Summary

The VSCode native extension currently has no way to notify the user when Claude needs attention (permission approval, task completion, waiting for input). The only indicators are:

A colored dot on the editor tab (🔵 pending / 🟠 done)
"✱ Claude Code" text in the status bar

Both are easy to miss when focus is on another window or monitor.

Request

Add a setting to emit VSCode/system-level notifications on key events, e.g.:

claude-code.notifications.enabled: boolean
claude-code.notifications.events: array of permissionRequest | taskComplete | waitingForInput | error

Ideally using vscode.window.showInformationMessage so users can rely on VSCode's built-in notification filter / Do Not Disturb.

Why not hooks?

Hooks (Notification / Stop) + external tools (BurntToast, msg, terminal-notifier) work, but:

Require platform-specific scripting
Not discoverable for new users
Duplicate work every user has to redo

A first-class setting would be much more ergonomic.

Environment

OS: Windows 11
VSCode native extension

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7 Comments

mlidbom · 3 months ago

Please!
I constantly work on other things while Claude Code is working in the background.
Not knowing when the agent is done causes great inefficiencies. I have to check back constantly, or accept that work goes far slower than it should.

jacobsvante · 2 months ago

It's rather surprising to find that this is not included today. Any known workarounds?

cveld · 2 months ago

@jacobsvante OP suggested:

Hooks (Notification / Stop) + external tools (BurntToast, msg, terminal-notifier) work, but [...]

I am a Windows 11 user, and I am exploring BurntToast at this moment. Would love to see unread markers in the sessions list though. I am heavily using parallel sessions.

tredondo · 2 months ago

I'm just giving Claude Code in VS Code a try after using Claude BYOK in Zed. Notifications are such an obvious feature, and their lack is so glaring; it boggled my mind that this FR was only fired SEVEN MONTHS after the VSCode extension was released.

@jacobsvante

It's ridiculous that there at least THREE extensions for Claude notifications.

Using competing tools is really an eye-opener.

ataldev · 2 months ago

How do they still not have this! I am so pissed trying to get a workaround here.

jmuheim · 1 month ago

I just tried for 2h to get this (or a workaround) working... didn't succeed. what a shame.

Sammmmm · 1 month ago

Please god yes

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