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Every way to hear from a coding agent, compared honestly.

Each page answers one question people actually ask, shows the rival’s own setup, and says plainly where the other tool is the better choice.

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Checked against each project’s own docs · Dated · No self-ranked “best” lists

The short answer

Pick the lightest tool that solves your problem.

If you run one agent and only need to know when it stops, a sound hook or terminal-notifier is enough, and every page below says so. Heard is for the next problem: several Claude Code or Codex sessions, and wanting to hear what changed and what needs you without going back to the screen.

All comparisons

macOS coding-agent notification tools comparedFourteen ways to follow Claude Code and Codex, from simple pings to spoken updates you can answer. Heard vs. bells, banners and generic text-to-speechWhen a simple notification is enough, and when context matters. terminal-notifier for Claude Code and Codex.Use terminal-notifier as a Claude Code and Codex notification, fix banners that never appear, and see where a banner stops being enough. How to make Claude Code talk: every text-to-speech option compared.Claude Code has voice input but no spoken output. Compare a say hook, claude-code-narrator, claude-code-tts, VoiceMode and Heard, with setup for each. Spoken notifications for OpenAI Codex.Hear when OpenAI Codex finishes or needs approval. Set up the notify command with say, then compare agent-notify, Voxlert, codex-voice-reply and Heard. Heard vs. AgentNotch: a board you glance at, or a voice you hear.AgentNotch shows your Claude Code and Codex sessions on screen; Heard tells you about them out loud. How they differ, where each wins, and when to run both. Open-source voice tools for coding agents, and what really runs locally.Compare open-source voice tools for Claude Code, Codex and other coding agents: Heard, VoiceMode, AgentVibes, claude-code-narrator, VoxAgent and VoiceLayer, and which ones send text to the cloud. What a voice layer for Claude Code is, and the two ways to build one.What is a voice layer for Claude Code? Compare Claude Code’s /voice, VoiceLayer’s MCP tools, VoiceMode and Heard’s hook-based voice layer.

Ready when your agents are

Hear the work without watching every screen.

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Download Heard for Mac macOS 14 or later · Claude Code and Codex supported