Claude Code notifications not working

You wired up a Notification hook, saw it work once, and now nothing. This usually splits into two problems: the hook isn't firing, or it fires and macOS eats the banner. Work through them in that order.

1. Run /hooks in the session. It lists what is actually loaded. If your hook isn't there, the session is reading a different settings file than the one you edited: project settings in .claude/settings.json take precedence over ~/.claude/settings.json, and .claude/settings.local.json beats both.
2. Check the matcher. A Notification hook with an empty matcher fires on everything; a specific one like permission_prompt or idle_prompt fires only on that event, and a typo in it fails silently.
3. Watch it live with claude --debug hooks from the terminal. If the command runs and you still see nothing, the rest is macOS.
4. Grant the notification permission. A banner sent with osascript shows up under Script Editor in System Settings, Notifications, and it's off until you allow it. terminal-notifier needs its own entry.
5. Turn off Focus. Do Not Disturb suppresses the banner without telling anyone, and this is the answer more often than it should be.
6. Check what the terminal swallows. A bell inside tmux, or inside the VS Code or Cursor integrated terminal, frequently never reaches you even when everything upstream is correct.

Where AgentNotch fits

Every step above is worth doing, and none of it changes the shape of a notification: it fires once, and if you miss it, it's gone. That's the part people are actually fighting when they debug this for the third time.

AgentNotch keeps the state visible instead. Session status lives in the menu bar while the session runs, so a finished or waiting session stays marked until you act on it, and with several open it points at the one that needs you. There is no hook to configure and nothing to keep working. It runs on your Mac and never reads your code or keys.