Notifications & Inbox

Orca runs agents, not just terminals, so it knows when an agent actually finishes versus when it's just paused. Notifications lean on that signal so you can queue three agents, walk away, and come back when the first one is done.

Agent-finished pings

When an agent transitions from working to idle, Orca fires a notification — system notification, sound, and a chip on the worktree. A completion sound still plays when one agent finishes right after another instead of being dropped.

For an updated structured chat, a successful turn instead marks its tab and workspace unread. It does not send a system notification or play a sound. Failed or canceled turns do not add an unread mark.

Persistent bell

The header bell shows unread notifications across all worktrees. Clicking a notification jumps to the matching worktree and pane.

On macOS, the same unread count is mirrored as a badge on the Dock icon, so you can spot pending agent pings without bringing Orca to the foreground. The badge clears when you visit the workspace.

Mark unread

Right-click a notification to mark unread — useful when you've triaged something but want to come back to it later.

Tuning

Turn off specific categories (system, sound, chip-only) under Settings → Notifications.

Per-machine

Under Settings → Notifications → Machines, choose which machines can show notifications on this computer — this computer, SSH targets, and paired Orca Servers. A paired server's switch also covers the work you reach through it. Muted machines are stored as an opt-out list, so a machine you add later still notifies. These switches only affect desktop notifications on this computer; phone push is unchanged.

Custom sounds

Pick a custom desktop notification sound per category under Settings → Notifications — point at any audio file on disk, or pick from Orca's built-in set. Useful when you want agent-finished pings to stand out from system mail and Slack.

Supported formats: MP3, WAV, OGG, M4A, AAC, FLAC. One file applies to all delivered desktop notifications.

When you use a custom sound, set its playback volume from the same settings pane.