A coding agent can run for minutes without needing anything from you. The practical problem is not how to make it execute more work. It is how to leave the terminal, keep the right context, and return when the next action actually belongs to you.
That is the job of an AI coding status companion: a persistent desktop surface that observes session evidence and reports state without silently operating the agent.
Visibility and execution are different products
A runner decides what command or prompt comes next. A retry loop decides when to try again. A status companion has a narrower contract: show whether Claude Code or Codex is working, waiting, finished, or asking for attention.
That boundary matters. If a monitor also approves prompts or resumes tasks, its risk model changes. A visibility tool can stay useful without receiving authority over the workflow.
A state label needs evidence
A quiet terminal is ambiguous. The process may be calculating, blocked on a tool, stalled, or finished. File modification time and process activity help with freshness, but neither proves that the user owns the next step.
A stronger state model uses semantic events from the session record:
- a recent tool event can support working;
- an assistant message that requests input can support your turn;
- a completion event can support finished;
- stale evidence should remain uncertain rather than being promoted to a confident label.
The monitor also has to preserve session identity. “Codex needs you” is not enough when three Codex tasks are open. The alert must remain attached to the project or thread that produced it.
Notification policy is part of correctness
A your-turn alert is a handoff signal, not a claim that the implementation is correct. It does not prove tests passed or the task is complete.
It should also avoid duplicate noise. If the exact session is already frontmost, keeping the visual state while suppressing an extra sound can be reasonable. If the developer switches away, the pending handoff must remain visible. Re-reading the same event after an app restart must not fire a second alert.
Local-first needs an inspectable boundary
A desktop monitor may parse local session records. “Local-first” should mean the product names those records, limits what it reads, and does not upload session data by default. Sharing a report is a separate, explicit action.
Agent Island follows that boundary: no product account, no product telemetry, and no session-data upload to Agent Island.
A six-step evaluation
- Run two sessions and check that the UI preserves both identities.
- Make one session ask a real question.
- Verify that only that session enters your-turn.
- Leave a tool running and confirm silence is not called finished.
- Restart the companion and check that the same handoff is not announced twice.
- Disconnect the network and confirm local status observation still works.
Agent Island v1.7.1 is a free, open-source status companion for Claude Code and Codex on macOS and Windows. It provides visible state and your-turn alerts; it does not silently approve, resume, or operate either agent.
The full definition and verification checklist are available in the canonical guide.
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