Notifications
The Desktop alerts you when something worth your attention happens: a response is ready, the agent needs a decision, a routine finished, or an update arrived. This page describes the notification center, how alerts are delivered, and how to adjust them.
The notifications described here belong to the Desktop app. Other surfaces don't have a native notification center.
The notification center
Click the Notifs pill (in the header) to open the drawer with the event history. From there you can see what happened while you were in another window and open the related item (for example, the session or routine that produced the alert).
How alerts arrive
- Native OS toast — the alert appears as a macOS or Windows notification, even with the Imaginne window in the background.
- In-app fallback — if the native notification isn't available (for example, permission denied by the system), the alert appears inside the app itself.
That way, you get the alert one way or another, without depending solely on the system permission.
Preferences
Tune notifications to get only what matters:
- Global on/off — silences or re-enables all notifications.
- By type — enable or disable each event category individually (see the list below).
- Do Not Disturb (DnD) — a window during which alerts are held; handy for meetings or focus.
Event types
The Desktop emits notifications for events such as:
| Category | Examples |
|---|---|
| Conversation | Response ready; the agent asks for a decision (ask user); tool error |
| Routines | Routine completed; routine failed (see Routines) |
| Remote | Pair created; client connected; client disconnected (see Remote session) |
| Skills | Skill completed; skill failed; skill sync |
| Session & app | Session expired; update available |
The session expired notification is your cue to sign in again. See how in Troubleshooting.
"Ask user": when the agent is waiting on you
The ask user notification happens when the agent needs a decision from you to continue — for example, to confirm a sensitive action. How frequent these requests are depends on your autonomy level: at low autonomy, the agent confirms almost everything; at high, it rarely interrupts. The notification makes sure you don't leave a task stalled waiting on a reply that never comes.
Tune it to your rhythm
Some useful combinations:
- Long, focused work → turn on Do Not Disturb and keep only response ready and ask user on, so you're called back only when you need to act.
- Routines running in the background → keep routine completed/failed on; see Routines.
- Active remote session → keep the remote events on to know when the other device connects or drops.
Since every notification is also logged in the drawer, turning off a category silences the immediate alert without losing the history.
Update available
The update available notification tells you when there's a new version of the Desktop. The app checks for this at startup, against a signed manifest; when there's an update, you see both the update banner and, depending on your preferences, the corresponding notification. See Install the Desktop for how updates are applied.
See also
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