Agent Chime
Hear when your coding agent is done. Agent Chime plays a sound when Claude Code or Codex finishes in a VS Code terminal, and a different sound when it stops to ask for your approval, so you can work on something else while it runs.
- Two sounds: a soft chime when the agent finishes, a double knock when it is waiting for you.
- Knows which terminal: with several agents running, the notification names the terminal, and Show Terminal takes you there.
- Quiet when you're watching: no sound if you are already looking at that agent's terminal.
- Status bar: shows how many agents are working, finished or waiting. Click it to jump to one, mute, or open the settings.
- One-click setup and one-click removal.
- Stays on your computer: the agents talk to VS Code over
127.0.0.1 only.
Getting started
- Install Agent Chime. On first start it offers to connect the agents it finds: choose Connect. You can also run Agent Chime: Connect Claude Code and Codex from the Command Palette at any time.
- Codex only: Codex asks you to review new hooks before it runs them. Start Codex, type
/hooks and approve the Agent Chime ones.
- Restart any agent sessions that were already running.
- Run Agent Chime: Play Test Sounds to check your volume.
Then start claude or codex in a VS Code terminal as usual.
Settings
| Setting |
Default |
What it does |
agentChime.doneSound |
chime |
Sound when an agent finishes: chime, knock, none, or the path to your own .wav, .mp3 or .aiff file. |
agentChime.needsInputSound |
knock |
Sound when an agent waits for your approval or an answer. |
agentChime.volume |
70 |
From 0 to 100. |
agentChime.whenFocused |
otherTerminal |
While VS Code is in front: otherTerminal stays quiet only for the terminal you are looking at, always plays anyway, never plays only when VS Code is in the background. |
agentChime.showNotification |
true |
Also show a notification with a Show Terminal button. |
Agent Chime: Mute or Unmute silences every window until you unmute.
What it changes
Connect adds a few entries to the agents' own hook settings, each running one small script, ~/.agent-chime/hook.sh:
|
Claude Code (~/.claude/settings.json) |
Codex (~/.codex/hooks.json) |
| Started working |
UserPromptSubmit |
UserPromptSubmit |
| Finished |
Stop, and StopFailure for errors |
Stop |
| Waiting for you |
Notification (permission prompts and questions) |
PermissionRequest |
The script tells the open VS Code windows what happened. The window whose terminal the agent runs in plays the sound; the others ignore it. The script only reports: it prints nothing back to the agent.
Your other settings and hooks stay as they are, and a copy of each file is saved the first time Agent Chime changes it (settings.json.agent-chime-backup, hooks.json.agent-chime-backup). Agent Chime: Disconnect Claude Code and Codex takes the entries out again. Uninstalling the extension doesn't, so disconnect first.
If CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR or CODEX_HOME is set, Agent Chime uses those folders.
Good to know
- macOS and Linux. On Windows, use VS Code with WSL. On Linux, one of
pw-play, paplay or aplay plays the sound, and curl must be installed.
- Local terminals. An agent inside
tmux or screen, or in a Remote SSH or container window, isn't matched to its terminal yet, so it stays silent.
- Codex needs a version with hooks (spring 2026 or later).
Troubleshooting
- No sound at all: run Agent Chime: Play Test Sounds. If that is silent, check
agentChime.volume and your system volume.
- Test sounds play but agents are silent: check that the agent was started after you connected, inside a VS Code terminal, and for Codex that you approved the hooks in
/hooks.
Help and privacy
Licence
MIT. The sounds were made for this extension and are covered by the same licence.
