Coding agents in the menu bar
Show which coding session is working, which is stuck, and let a person reply without opening the app.
- Category
- Developer tools
- Who it is for
- Mac developers running more than one coding agent.
- Possible model
- Open source
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Inspired by
- look alive · look alive
- Original launch
- Watch the launch · Oct 5, 2026
Difficulty is an editorial estimate of technical and operational complexity, not a score.
Short startup notes by Startup Ideas. A longer read is added only after it is written for this launch. Last reviewed Oct 6, 2026. How we read a launch.
The problem
Agents run for a long time and the only signal is a terminal the developer is not looking at.
Who would pay for this?
Mac developers running more than one coding agent.
How could it make money?
A possible model is open source. That is an editorial guess from the shape of the launch, not a published price, and not evidence that look alive uses it.
What would the MVP look like?
A notch or menu item with status, and a reply box.
Original product launch
This launch is inspiration and evidence that someone shipped, not a partnership. The idea above is our reading of the broader opportunity. look alive did not write it.
- Product
- look alive
- Company
- look alive
- Film
- Introducing look alive
- Posted
- Oct 5, 2026 · 0:10
Product that inspired this idea
Claude Code and Codex sessions shown in the Mac notch, so you can see who is working, who is stuck, and reply from there.
Posted by @finnmarten. Launch page. No separate product site is listed unless the post itself is the source.
- agents
- macos
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