Ubuntu Manpage: kitten-notify - Send notifications to the user

Name

       kitten-notify - Send notifications to the user

Overview

       Show pop-up system notifications.

       Added in version 0.36.0: The notify kitten

       The notify kitten can be used to show pop-up system notifications from the shell. It even works over SSH.
       Using it is as simple as:

          kitten notify "Good morning" Hello world, it is a nice day!

       To add an icon, use:

          kitten notify --icon-path /path/to/some/image.png "Good morning" Hello world, it is a nice day!
          kitten notify --icon firefox "Good morning" Hello world, it is a nice day!

       To be informed when the notification is activated:

          kitten notify --wait-for-completion "Good morning" Hello world, it is a nice day!

       Then,  the  kitten  will  wait till the notification is either closed or activated.  If activated, a 0 is
       printed to STDOUT. You can press the Esc or Ctrl+c keys to abort, closing the notification.

       To add buttons to the notification:

          kitten notify --wait-for-completion --button One --button Two "Good morning" Hello world, it is a nice day!

       Tip:
          Learn about the underlying Desktop notifications <> escape code protocol.

Source code for notify

       The source code for this kitten is available on GitHub  <https://github.com/kovidgoyal/kitty/tree/master/
       kittens/notify>.

Command line interface

kitten notify [options] TITLE [BODY ...]

Send notifications to the user that are displayed to them via the desktop environment's notifications
service. Works over SSH as well.

To update an existing notification, specify the identifier of the notification with the --identifier
option. The value should be the same as the identifier specified for the notification you wish to update.

If no title is specified and an identifier is specified using the --identifier option, then instead of
creating a new notification, an existing notification with the specified identifier is closed.

Options
--icon <ICON>, -n <ICON>
The name of the icon to use for the notification. An icon with this name will be searched for on
the computer running the terminal emulator. Can be specified multiple times, the first name that
is found will be used. Standard names: error, file-manager, help, info, question, system-monitor,
text-editor, warn, warning

--icon-path <ICON_PATH>, -p <ICON_PATH>
Path to an image file in PNG/JPEG/GIF formats to use as the icon. If both name and path are
specified then first the name will be looked for and if not found then the path will be used.

--app-name <APP_NAME>, -a <APP_NAME>
The application name for the notification. Default: kitten-notify

--button <BUTTON>, -b <BUTTON>
Add a button with the specified text to the notification. Can be specified multiple times for
multiple buttons. If --wait-till-closed is used then the kitten will print the button number to
STDOUT if the user clicks a button. 1 for the first button, 2 for the second button and so on.

--urgency <URGENCY>, -u <URGENCY>
The urgency of the notification. Default: normal Choices: critical, low, normal

--expire-after <EXPIRE_AFTER>, -e <EXPIRE_AFTER>
The duration, for the notification to appear on screen. The default is to use the policy of the OS
notification service. A value of never means the notification should never expire, however, this
may or may not work depending on the policies of the OS notification service. Time is specified in
the form NUMBER[SUFFIX] where SUFFIX can be s for seconds, m for minutes, h for hours or d for
days. Non-integer numbers are allowed. If not specified, seconds is assumed. The notification is
guaranteed to be closed automatically after the specified time has elapsed. The notification could
be closed before by user action or OS policy.

--sound-name <SOUND_NAME>, -s <SOUND_NAME>
The name of the sound to play with the notification. system means let the notification system use
whatever sound it wants. silent means prevent any sound from being played. Any other value is
passed to the desktop's notification system which may or may not honor it. Default: system

--type <TYPE>, -t <TYPE>
The notification type. Can be any string, it is used by users to create filter rules for
notifications, so choose something descriptive of the notification's purpose.

--identifier <IDENTIFIER>, -i <IDENTIFIER>
The identifier of this notification. If a notification with the same identifier is already
displayed, it is replaced/updated.

--print-identifier [=no], -P [=no]
Print the identifier for the notification to STDOUT. Useful when not specifying your own
identifier via the --identifier option.

--wait-for-completion [=no], --wait-till-closed [=no], -w [=no]
Wait until the notification is closed. If the user activates the notification, "0" is printed to
STDOUT before quitting. If a button on the notification is pressed the number corresponding to the
button is printed to STDOUT. Press the Esc or Ctrl+C keys to close the notification manually.

--only-print-escape-code [=no]
Only print the escape code to STDOUT. Useful if using this kitten as part of a larger application.
If this is specified, the --wait-till-closed option will be used for escape code generation, but
no actual waiting will be done.

--icon-cache-id <ICON_CACHE_ID>, -g <ICON_CACHE_ID>
Identifier to use when caching icons in the terminal emulator. Using an identifier means that icon
data needs to be transmitted only once using --icon-path. Subsequent invocations will use the
cached icon data, at least until the terminal instance is restarted. This is useful if this kitten
is being used inside a larger application, with --only-print-escape-code.

Author

       Kovid Goyal

Copyright

       2025, Kovid Goyal

0.44.0                                            Nov 26, 2025                                  kitten-notify(1)