whendone-plus

WhenDone Plus

Automatically notify when long-running commands complete.

How It Works

1. User runs a long command (e.g. npm test, docker build, git push)
2. The agent monitors the command execution time
3. If the command runs longer than the threshold (default 10s), the agent notifies the user on completion
4. Exit code is passed through

Workflow

Step 1: Detect long-running command

Identify commands likely to exceed threshold:

• npm test, npm run test, npx playwright test
• docker build, docker compose up, docker compose down
• git push, git pull, git clone
• pip install, npm install, pnpm install, yarn install
• cargo build, cargo test, go build, dotnet build
• Custom scripts, database migrations, data processing pipelines
• ffmpeg, rsync, scp, large file transfers

Step 2: Monitor execution

Start a background timer when the command begins. Track:

• Elapsed wall-clock time
• Peak memory usage (if available)
• Child process tree (for pipeline awareness)

Step 3: Notify on completion

Basic notification format:

✅ "Command finished: npm test completed in 142s (exit 0)"
❌ "Command finished: docker build failed in 89s (exit 1)"

Include:

• Command name (first word + key args)
• Execution time (rounded to seconds)
• Exit code (success/failure)
• Optional: memory peak, output file path if redirected

Step 4: Handle edge cases

• Commands completing under 10s: no notification (too fast to matter)
• Interactive/TUI commands (vim, nano, htop): skip (user is watching)
• Piped commands (e.g. npm test | grep error): monitor the pipeline, not the first process
• Backgrounded commands (&): notify on background process completion
• Chained commands (;): notify per-segment or in aggregate
• Commands killed by signal: notify with signal name (e.g. "killed by SIGTERM")

Notification Mechanisms

Windows Toast Notification (PowerShell)

Add-Type -AssemblyName System.Windows.Forms
$balloon = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.NotifyIcon
$balloon.Icon = [System.Drawing.SystemIcons]::Information
$balloon.BalloonTipTitle = "Command Complete"
$balloon.BalloonTipText = "npm test finished in 142s (exit 0)"
$balloon.Visible = $true
$balloon.ShowBalloonTip(5000)
Start-Sleep -Seconds 5
$balloon.Dispose()