Heads-up

Spoken alerts on your Mac when Claude Code finishes a task or needs you, so you can step away from the keyboard and still know when to come back.

"Hello from Kosh. I need your review."

Heads-up is a plugin for Claude Code (and Codex): a small local MCP server, a skill that teaches the agent when to speak up, and hooks. The agent calls one tool, notify_user, and your Mac plays a short line: one of 20 built-in clips, or, with your own ElevenLabs or Sarvam key, Claude's own words in the voice you picked. It stays quiet when you're at the keyboard, on a call, in a Focus mode, or away from home.

What it does

• 20 alerts in 7 voices (American, British, Australian and Indian; male and female), 140 built-in clips. No API key needed for these.

• Works without a key: out of the box it plays the built-in clips ("Hello. I need your review."). Project names and Claude's own words are opt-in features that switch on once you add your own ElevenLabs or Sarvam key.

• Project names (your key): "Hello from Brand Bakery Hub." Each project's name is recorded once, then cached.

• Claude's own words (your key): when a fixed line doesn't say enough, Claude adds a short message ("The migration ran, but two tables need your review.") and it's spoken live. Lines are cleaned (no code or links), capped in length, cached, and counted against a daily character budget. If it can't be recorded, the regular alert plays.

• Any voice from your provider (your key): add voices from your ElevenLabs account or any of Sarvam's 37 speakers on the settings page. Alerts in that voice are recorded the first time each plays, or all at once.

• Your own wording (your key): change what any alert says on the settings page; only that line is recorded.

• Cost you can see: characters used today and this month per provider, plus your ElevenLabs plan's credit counter.

• Automatic alerts via Claude Code hooks: permission prompts, and turns that run longer than 2 minutes, even if Claude forgets to call the tool. Background sessions (claude -p, SDK workers) never trigger them.

• Polite by default

  • Away detection: silent if you used the keyboard or mouse in the last 60 seconds.

  • Calls and Focus: silent while a microphone is in use, or a macOS Focus is on.

  • Locations: optionally only play on saved networks (Home, office), recognised by the router's hardware address. No GPS.

  • Quiet hours, a gap between alerts, and an hourly limit.

• Ear-safe volume: if your Mac is muted or quiet, an alert briefly turns it up, then restores it. AirPods and headphones never go above 50%; speakers never above 90%.

• Settings page at http://127.0.0.1:4777 (headsup), local only.

Related MCP server: Claude Code Notification Hooks

Requirements

• macOS, Node.js 20+, Claude Code (or Codex)

• Xcode Command Line Tools (swiftc) to build the microphone checker

• ffmpeg (Homebrew) for anything recorded with your key

• Optional: an ElevenLabs and/or Sarvam API key, only for recording new lines

Install

In Claude Code, one step:

/plugin install heads-up --marketplace abhishek207/headsup-mcp

Or from a terminal, which also builds the call detector and adds the headsup command:

npx headsup-mcp install      # add --dry-run to see the changes first

From a checkout, npm run setup does the same with the local copy. It's safe to run again after an update. It:

1. checks Node and ffmpeg,

2. builds the call detector into the data folder (needs swiftc),

3. adds the heads-up marketplace and installs the plugin in Claude Code, and allows its notify_user tool in ~/.claude/settings.json (backup in settings.json.heads-up-backup). Without the allow rule the first alert in each session waits on a permission prompt, which defeats the point when you're away,

4. removes the pre-plugin setup if it finds it (MCP entry, hooks, CLAUDE.md section), so alerts don't double,

5. installs the plugin in Codex too if Codex is installed; trust its hooks once there with /hooks,

6. writes the headsup command to ~/.local/bin.

headsup uninstall takes it all out again and keeps your settings.

What the plugin contains

Check the manifests with npm run validate.

Use

headsup              # open the settings page
headsup status       # what would happen right now
headsup test review  # play an alert now
headsup mute 30      # mute for 30 minutes; headsup unmute
headsup off          # master switch; headsup on
headsup say "The build is green."   # hear a line of your own (uses your key)
headsup usage        # characters sent to your voice providers

API keys

Only needed to record new lines: project names, your wording, added voices and Claude's own words. Add them on the settings page; they go into your macOS Keychain and are never written to a file or shown again. ElevenLabs keys are checked before they're saved (free), and the Test button speaks a few words with yours. Heads-up also reads ELEVENLABS_API_KEY / SARVAM_API_KEY from the environment, and Keychain items named elevenlabs-api-key / sarvam-api-key.

Claude's lines are sent to your provider to be spoken, so Claude is told to keep code, paths and secrets out of them. The daily budget (1,000 characters by default) caps everything recorded automatically; what you record from the settings page isn't capped.

Where things live

• The plugin folder (Claude Code keeps it under ~/.claude/plugins/): code and built-in voices.

• ~/Library/Application Support/heads-up (or $HEADS_UP_HOME): your settings, alert log, hook state, recordings (segments/, cache/clips/) and the usage log (usage.json).

Troubleshooting

• hook.log in the data folder has one line per hook decision and why.

• The settings page's "Recent alerts" shows every alert, played or skipped, with the reason.

• HEADS_UP_DISABLED=1 silences everything for one process (handy for tests).

• Codex doesn't tell hooks whether a session is interactive, so a long codex exec run also announces when it finishes. Claude Code's background runs (claude -p, SDK) are ignored.

• Codex in full-auto ("YOLO") mode never asks for approval, so the approval alert never fires there.

Voices and credits

Voices powered by ElevenLabs (elevenlabs.io) and Sarvam AI.

• English clips: ElevenLabs voices Brian, Sarah, George, Alice and Charlie, made on the ElevenLabs free plan. Credit: elevenlabs.io. Non-commercial use only.

• Indian English clips: Sarvam Bulbul v3 voices Aditya and Priya.

Lines you record with your own key are made under your own account and your provider's terms.

Contributing

Use it, fork it, change it. Outside pull requests aren't accepted and are closed automatically; bug reports are welcome as issues. See CONTRIBUTING.md.

License

Copyright (C) 2026 Brand Bakery.

The code is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0 (GPL-3.0-only): use, change and share it freely; if you distribute a modified version, it must stay under the GPL with its source available. The built-in clips in voices/ aren't covered by it; see voices/NOTICE.md.

Built and maintained by Brand Bakery.