# Vitals 1.12: approve Claude Code and Codex from the MacBook notch By Atta Ur Rehman Shah (https://attacomsian.com/about). Published Nov 16, 2026. Topics: Product Update. Canonical URL: https://attacomsian.com/blog/vitals-claude-code-notch > **Quick answer:** Vitals 1.12 shows coding agents' permission requests in the MacBook notch. Connect Claude Code, Codex or Gemini CLI in Settings → Integrations → Coding Agents, and when an agent wants to run a command or edit a file, the notch shows the command, the project and Allow, Always Allow and Deny. Claude Code's questions are answered there with a click, and a finished turn says which dev servers it left running. Alerts that need you, such as the Mac running out of memory, come out of the notch with Quit. On a Mac without a notch, both appear under Vitals in the menu bar. **[Vitals](https://vitalsmac.com)** 1.12 puts Vitals in the notch. When Claude Code, Codex or Gemini CLI needs your permission to run a command or edit a file, the request comes out of the MacBook notch and you answer it there, without going back to the terminal. The alerts that need you come out of the notch too, with what to do about them. It came out yesterday. If you haven't used it, Vitals is an Activity Monitor alternative for Mac. It groups every process under the app it belongs to, so you see about 60 apps instead of 1,000 processes. I wrote about [why I built it](https://attacomsian.com/blog/vitals) when it came out. ## Why the notch I run two or three coding agents most days, each in its own terminal, each in a different project. They stop whenever they need permission to run a command or edit a file, and they wait. I find out when I next look at that terminal, which can be twenty minutes later. Vitals already knew which agents were running and what they were using, from the [Agents tab](https://attacomsian.com/blog/vitals-agents-ai-usage-limits). 1.12 lets the agent tell Vitals when it's waiting, and Vitals tells you in the notch, which is always in view and covers nothing. Because Vitals is also watching the Mac, the notch can tell you more than "an agent is waiting": which project is asking, how long a turn took, and what it left running. ## Approve Claude Code permission requests from the notch ![A request in the notch: Claude Code in the project shop wants to run a command, npm test, with Answer in Terminal, Deny, Always Allow and Allow under it](https://attacomsian.com/assets/img/blog/vitals-claude-code-notch/request.webp) When an agent asks, a black panel grows out of the notch with the agent, the project, and the command or file it's asking about. - **Allow** lets it go on. - **Always Allow** keeps the rule Claude Code itself suggests, such as allowing `npm test` in this project. The line under the buttons says what it keeps. - **Deny** refuses it. - **Answer in Terminal** leaves it to the agent's own window and brings that window forward. The panel never takes the keyboard from the app you're in, so you can keep typing and answer when you're ready. It's left out of screenshots and screen sharing. ## How to connect Claude Code, Codex or Gemini CLI 1. In Vitals, open **Settings → Integrations** and find **Coding Agents**. 2. Click **Connect…** beside the agent. Vitals shows the hooks it will add to the agent's settings file. 3. Click **Connect**. Sessions already running pick up the hooks when they start again. Vitals keeps a copy of the settings file from before, and **Disconnect** takes the hooks out again. ## See which project is asking ![A request from the project vitals-website, with its name in a violet chip beside the notch, a violet line down the edge of the command, and 2 more waiting from shop and api](https://attacomsian.com/assets/img/blog/vitals-claude-code-notch/sessions.webp) With three sessions waiting at once, it's easy to allow the wrong one. So every project has a colour of its own, on its name beside the notch and down the edge of the command, and the notch says how many more are waiting and from which projects. For the first moment a request is on screen, its buttons take no click, so a second click meant for the last request doesn't land on the next one. ## Answer Claude Code's questions with a click ![A question from Claude Code in the notch: Which database should the cart use, with Postgres, SQLite and Redis as choices, each with a line about it](https://attacomsian.com/assets/img/blog/vitals-claude-code-notch/question.webp) When Claude Code asks you a question with choices, the choices appear in the notch, each with what it means. A click answers it. A question that takes several answers has **Next**, and **Done** on the last. To type an answer of your own, choose **Answer in Terminal**. ## Codex and Gemini CLI A request from Codex has **Allow** and **Deny**. Gemini CLI's hooks can refuse a tool but can't allow one, so only its own window can say yes. The notch tells you it's waiting, with the command, and **Show Terminal** takes you there. ![Gemini CLI in the notch: Needs your OK in its terminal, the command npm run build, with Not Now and Show Terminal](https://attacomsian.com/assets/img/blog/vitals-claude-code-notch/waiting.webp) ## Know when an agent is done, and what it left running The Agents tab and the dropdown now say what each session is doing, in the agent's own words: **Running npm test**, **Thinking**, **Needs your OK**, **Asked you a question** or **Stopped at a usage limit**. A turn that took 30 seconds or more ends with a line in the notch: the agent, the project, how long it took, and any dev servers it left running with the memory they hold. ![A line in the notch: Claude Code finished in shop after 4 minutes 20 seconds, and left ports 3000 and 5173 running with 1.2 GB](https://attacomsian.com/assets/img/blog/vitals-claude-code-notch/finished.webp) Agents start dev servers and leave them running, and a day later you have six of them holding a few gigabytes between them. Now you hear about it when it happens. There's more on finding them in [Vitals for developers](https://attacomsian.com/blog/vitals-for-developers). ## Memory and CPU alerts in the notch, with Quit beside them ![An alert in the notch: The Mac is out of memory, the biggest users are Safari with 9.4 GB and Xcode with 6.1 GB, memory at 96 percent beside the notch, and the buttons Not Now, Show Memory and Quit Safari](https://attacomsian.com/assets/img/blog/vitals-claude-code-notch/alert.webp) Vitals' insights used to wait under Worth a Look, or arrive as a notification that was easy to miss and didn't let you do anything. The ones that need you now come out of the notch: the Mac running out of memory or running hot, an app over a limit you set, an app that keeps growing in memory or keeps the CPU busy, dev servers left idle, and a stuck command. Beside the notch is the number the alert is about, as it is now. Under it is what you can do: - **Quit** quits the app the way ⌘Q does, so it can still ask you to save. When the Mac is out of memory, it offers the app using the most. - **Not Today** mutes alerts about that app until tomorrow. - **Show** opens Vitals on the right tab, with the app open. ![An alert in the notch about Safari: it is using more and more memory, up 1.6 GB in the last hour to 9.4 GB, with Not Today, Show and Quit Safari](https://attacomsian.com/assets/img/blog/vitals-claude-code-notch/alert-app.webp) An alert goes after nine seconds unless the pointer is on it. At most one comes every two minutes, except for running out of memory and running hot, and none comes over an app in full screen. If you'd rather not have them there, **Settings → Insights → Show Insights** has **In the Notch**, **As Notifications** and **Only in Vitals**. ## On a Mac without a notch On an iMac, a Mac mini or Mac Studio, or a MacBook with its lid closed, requests and alerts come down as a card from under Vitals in the menu bar, on the screen the menu bar item is on. ![The card a Mac without a notch shows: an alert that Safari is above 8 GB, with Not Today, Show and Quit Safari](https://attacomsian.com/assets/img/blog/vitals-claude-code-notch/card.webp) ## Does Vitals read my prompts or my code? No. A hook hands Vitals the event, the session, its folder and, for a permission, the command or file it's about. Vitals keeps none of your prompts or the agent's answers, and sends nothing anywhere. ## What happens when Vitals isn't running? Each hook returns at once and says nothing, and the agent asks in its terminal as it did before. An agent is never held up waiting for Vitals. ## Which Macs does it work on? Any Mac on Apple silicon or Intel running macOS 15 Sequoia or later. The notch panel needs a MacBook with a notch; every other Mac gets the card under the menu bar. ## How to get it The update is free for everyone who owns Vitals. In Vitals, choose Check for Updates. New to Vitals? [Get it for Mac](https://vitalsmac.com/#pricing), or try it free for 3 days first. There's a [page for the release](https://vitalsmac.com/changelog/1.12) with each part step by step, and pages on [answering coding agents](https://vitalsmac.com/features/agents) and [alerts](https://vitalsmac.com/features/alerts).