Why it matters
When Case had a question, it either waited at a terminal I wasn’t looking at or picked the safe default and stopped. So I kept checking on it, and checking on agents is just watching with extra steps.
Riker treats your attention as a budget. It sorts everything into four levels, and only the first one interrupts you:
- Needs your decision
- Failed or stuck, and needs action
- Finished since you last looked
- In progress
You already design notification systems. This is the same work.
Exercise: make it come to you
- Sort the questions your agent asked in the last lesson into the four levels above.
- Make level 1 reach you without watching. Claude Code has hooks that can run a command when it needs your input or finishes. Codex can run a program when a turn finishes. Use either one to send yourself a desktop notification.
- Add one line to your instructions: “When you finish, end with one line: done, blocked, or needs a decision.”
Check yourself: start a task, switch to something else, and don’t look back until you’re notified. How long could you stay away?