# Needs Input Inbox > When an agent ends a turn with a question, a permission prompt or a choice to make, AgentsRoom makes it impossible to miss: the agent's avatar gets a pulsing red halo and badge, its row is tinted red, the project row in the sidebar gets a pulsing beacon and is hoisted to the top of its zone, a soft ping plays, a desktop notification and a push to your phone go out, and a red needs input pill appears in the title bar. - Area: Desktop, mobile and web - Plans: All plans - Last checked against the product: 2026-09-08 - Web page: https://agentsroom.dev/docs/needs-input-inbox ## What it does When an agent ends a turn with a question, a permission prompt or a choice to make, AgentsRoom makes it impossible to miss: the agent's avatar gets a pulsing red halo and badge, its row is tinted red, the project row in the sidebar gets a pulsing beacon and is hoisted to the top of its zone, a soft ping plays, a desktop notification and a push to your phone go out, and a red **needs input** pill appears in the title bar. That pill opens the inbox: every waiting agent across every open project, sorted by how long it has been waiting, one click away. The red state stays until you actually answer. ## Where to find it - Title bar, left side, next to the agent rail: the red **needs input** pill (shown only while at least one agent waits). Click it to open the **Waiting for input** popover. - Shortcut: **Cmd+Shift+I** jumps to the oldest waiting agent from any screen. - Room header: three chips (idle / working / needs input); clicking the red one opens the oldest waiting agent of that project. - Footer: a "N needs input" cluster, expanded by default, with one clickable pill per agent. - Agent list: the **Needs input** section is the first bucket of the room, above Active. ## How to use it 1. When the red pill appears, click it (or press Cmd+Shift+I) and pick an agent; its terminal is focused. 2. Because the agent is waiting, focus lands in the terminal itself, not the composer, so arrow keys and Enter answer the CLI's menu directly. Once the agent starts working again, focus returns to the composer. 3. Type your answer. The red state clears on your keystroke or on the agent's own signal; simply looking at the agent does not clear it. ## Settings - `needsInputSound` (global, Settings > Notifications, "Play a sound when an agent needs input"): default on. - `notificationSound` (global, Settings > Notifications): the separate chime for finished turns. - `sendNotificationsToPhone` (global, Settings > Notifications): mirror the notification to the paired phone. ## Agent tools (MCP) - `agents_list_live`: reports each agent's status, including `waiting_input` (asking the human a question). - `usage_overview`: anonymous census of running consoles by status, including how many are waiting. ## Providers Every provider is covered by the agent's own end-of-turn status report, which flags a question left open. On top of that, Claude Code's interactive prompts, Codex's permission requests, OpenCode's plugin events and Grok Build's hooks are detected as they appear on screen, so a menu or an approval request lights up before the turn even ends. Detection matches the CLI's own English interface text, so it works whatever language you converse in. ## Mobile The phone has no title bar, so there is no inbox popover. Its equivalents are the push notification ("Needs input" subtitle, agent and project in the title) and the red state of the agent row; the Activity tab sorts waiting agents first. ## Limits - The red state is sticky: it only clears when you type or send, or when the agent itself reports it moved on. Clicking or focusing the agent does not dismiss it. - Codex sessions started outside AgentsRoom (from another terminal) are not watched. - A CLI update that changes its prompt wording can delay detection of on-screen menus until AgentsRoom is updated; the end-of-turn report still works. ## Common questions - **I clicked the agent, why is it still red?** Because you have not answered yet. Type in the terminal (or send from the composer) and the state clears. - **Why did the focus land in the terminal instead of the composer?** The agent is showing a CLI menu; the terminal is where arrows and Enter answer it. A non-empty draft in the composer prevents this focus move. - **What is the green dot?** Unread: the agent finished a turn while you were not looking. Red (waiting) always wins over green (unread) on the avatar. - **Can I turn the sound off?** Yes, Settings > Notifications, "Play a sound when an agent needs input". ## Related - [Agent Status Tracking](https://agentsroom.dev/docs/agent-status-tracking.md): how idle / working / done / needs input are detected. - [Agent Notifications](https://agentsroom.dev/docs/agent-notifications.md): desktop and push notifications for these events. - [Open Space](https://agentsroom.dev/docs/open-space.md): the account-wide screen sorted by who is waiting on you. - [Dynamic Island](https://agentsroom.dev/docs/dynamic-island.md): the floating status pill that also surfaces waiting agents.