Notifications

You can leave an agent working and get a notification when it replies, fails, or needs your input. Open the notification to return to that project and thread.

Codex can ask a question and keep working while it waits for your answer. You'll get an alert when the question appears, before the turn finishes, subject to your notification settings. Open the notification to answer in the thread. A group of questions will send one alert; ordinary progress messages will not send question alerts.

Codex also sends an input alert when it pauses for a question, form, or approval. Reopening the same pending request will not send another alert. Your notification settings still apply, including quiet hours and pause; muting completion notifications will not mute requests for your input.

If an automation does background work you don't need to watch, you can turn off its completion notifications. To quiet a single thread, mute it.

Set quiet hours

Open Settings → Notifications on desktop, or Settings → Notifications → Quiet hours on your phone. Enable quiet hours, choose the daily start and end times, and save. The same hours apply to all your projects and devices, using each device's own timezone. For example, 10pm–8am will follow local time on your computer and phone.

During quiet hours, agent replies, failures, input requests, and teammate-agent messages will not send alerts. Threads will still become unread, and questions and approval requests will remain available when you return. Missed alerts will not play later. Terminal bells have their own desktop setting.

Your phone updates its timezone when it connects to boxes.dev. After travel, open the app so quiet hours can follow the new zone; while closed, it uses the last zone it reported. Open the updated mobile app on each phone before relying on quiet hours there. A phone that has not received the update will keep its previous notification behavior.

Pause notifications

Choose Pause notifications for 1 hour from the desktop account menu, or use the pause action in Settings → Notifications. The website's Account page and mobile Settings have the same pause action. The pause applies to agent notifications on every device signed into this account and ends at the same instant everywhere. Choose Resume in settings or Resume notifications in the desktop menu to end it early. Your daily quiet hours will still apply.

A notification already on its way may still arrive after you pause. Unread markers and app icon badges will continue updating.

Configure desktop notifications

Open your account menu at the bottom left, then choose Settings… → Notifications. Under Thread replies, choose when you want to be notified; the one setting covers completed replies, failures, and threads that need your input:

• Never: you will not receive banners or sounds for these events.
• Only when unfocused: you will receive them while the workbench is in the background. This is the default.
• Always: you will also receive them for other threads while using the workbench. The thread you are actively viewing will not notify you then.

To keep banners without sound, turn off Play notification sounds on the same page. Sound is on by default. Update the desktop app if this control is missing.

Allow notifications for boxes.dev in your operating system's settings as well. Codex completion notifications can include a preview of the final response.

Manage account-wide pause and quiet hours alongside this computer's desktop alerts. Select the image to enlarge it.

Follow unread and attention markers

Use unread markers in the thread list to find conversations you haven't checked. A thread that finishes while the workbench is in the background stays unread until you return and view it. To remind yourself to return later, choose Mark unread from its menu; it will stay unread until you open it again.

Unread state is shared between desktop and mobile. When you read a teammate's shared thread, you will clear only your own unread marker, not theirs.

On macOS, enable Show unread thread count in Dock under Settings → Notifications to display the count on the boxes.dev icon.

A terminal bell can also request your attention without adding an unread thread. Configure bells separately under Settings → Terminal → Bell.

Mute a thread

To mute a thread, choose Mute notifications from its menu. In the mobile app, long-press the thread to open that menu. When its agent finishes a reply or fails, you will not get a notification and the thread will not be marked unread. If the agent needs your input, you will still be notified.

A muted thread shows a bell with a slash next to its title. Muting will also clear the thread's unread marker, but a request for your input will stay visible until you answer it. If you mark a muted thread unread, it will stay unread until you open it or its agent finishes another turn. To turn notifications back on, choose Unmute notifications.

Muting suits threads you don't need to follow yourself, such as workers that another agent starts and checks on. Agents can start those threads already muted.

When a devbox has two or more muted threads, they collapse into a small row below its other threads. The row shows whether any of them are working, and clicking or tapping it shows the threads. A muted thread stays in the main list while it's waiting for you or marked unread, and on desktop the thread you have open stays there too. The devbox's first thread is always listed, even if it's muted.

Use your phone

Allow boxes.dev to send notifications in your phone's system settings. Opening a notification will take you to its conversation, even if the mobile app was closed.

Your phone stays quiet while boxes.dev is in front on your computer. When boxes.dev is in the background, your phone also stays quiet for the selected project while you're using the computer and desktop alerts are enabled. Other projects can still notify your phone.

For the background app, phone alerts resume after five minutes without keyboard or mouse input, when it detects a locked screen, or shortly after the computer sleeps or the app quits. Update the desktop app to use this behavior. If desktop notifications are set to Never, your phone can still notify you while boxes.dev is in the background. Silent desktop banners still count as desktop alerts.

To show an unread count on the app icon, open the mobile app's Settings → Notifications and enable Unread app icon badge.

To stop alerts on this phone, turn off Push notifications in that same card. This preference applies to the current account on this phone. It will not turn off the unread badge or alerts on your other devices.

If you're signed in to more than one account on your phone, notifications arrive from all of them, and the badge counts unread conversations across those accounts. A notification for an account you aren't using will appear even while the app is open. Opening it will switch to that account first. An account starts sending notifications to your phone after you've opened it there once.

If a notification is missing, open the mobile app to check the thread. Confirm that the account is signed in on your phone (Settings lists every signed-in account) and that your phone has not blocked notifications for boxes.dev.