---
title: "Notification | AgentRQ Glossary"
url: https://agentrq.com/glossary/notification
description: "A notification is a real-time message sent by an AI agent to a human, informing them of progress, blockers, or completed work — without necessarily requiring an immediate response."
---

[Back to Glossary](https://agentrq.com/glossary/)

# Notification

A **notification** is a real-time message sent by an AI [agent](https://agentrq.com/glossary/agent) to a human, informing them of progress, blockers, or completed work. Unlike an [approval](https://agentrq.com/glossary/approval) request that blocks the agent until the human responds, a notification is typically informational — the agent may continue working while the human reviews it.

## Purpose of Notifications

Notifications serve several roles in agent workflows:

- → **Progress updates** — "I've finished the refactor, running tests now"
- → **Completion signals** — "All 47 tests are passing, PR is ready for review"
- → **Blocking alerts** — "I encountered a permission error and need your help"
- → **Decision requests** — "I found two approaches — which do you prefer?"

They keep humans informed without requiring constant manual check-ins.

## Notifications vs. Approvals

|  | Notification | Approval |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Agent behavior | Continues working | Waits for response |
| Human action required | Optional | Required |
| Use case | FYI updates | Permission gates |

## Notifications in AgentRQ

AgentRQ delivers agent notifications in real time to your [task board](https://agentrq.com/glossary/task-board) via [SSE](https://agentrq.com/glossary/sse). When a [Claude Code](https://agentrq.com/glossary/claude-code) agent calls the `task` MCP tool with the `reply` action, the message appears instantly — no polling, no delays.

You can configure notifications per [workspace](https://agentrq.com/glossary/workspace) and receive them on any device that's connected to your AgentRQ session.

## Designing Good Notifications

- → **Be specific** — "Tests failed: 3 failures in auth module" beats "something went wrong"
- → **Include context** — Tell the human what the agent was doing when the notification fired
- → **Signal what's needed** — Make it clear whether a response is required or it's just informational
- → **Don't over-notify** — Too many notifications train humans to ignore them

## Related Terms

- → [Approval](https://agentrq.com/glossary/approval)
- → [Bidirectional Messaging](https://agentrq.com/glossary/bidirectional-messaging)
- → [Task](https://agentrq.com/glossary/task)
- → [SSE](https://agentrq.com/glossary/sse)
- → [Human-in-the-Loop](https://agentrq.com/glossary/human-in-the-loop)