Source available · project by Lev
SidePulse
A source-available Mac, iPhone, and command-line system that turns coding-agent lifecycle events into simple status lights on a nearby phone.
- Availability
- Source available on GitHub; build and run it yourself.
- Built for
- Developers who want an ambient view of local coding-agent status.
- Platform
- macOS and iOS
From agent event to visible signal
SidePulse listens to lifecycle hooks from supported coding tools, translates those events into a tiny LED state, and writes the result atomically to a local LEDS.TXT file. The Mac component serves that state over the local network; the iPhone app renders it as either an eight-light ATLD-style display or a compact two-light side post.
The deliberately small output is the point. A coloured light can answer “is it working, waiting, or done?” from across the room without opening another dashboard or keeping the terminal in view.
- Lifecycle hooks for Claude Code, Codex, and Kimi workflows.
- A local controller with atomic state-file writes.
- Bonjour discovery and an HTTP /leds.txt endpoint with ETag support.
- Two iPhone renderers: eight LEDs or a two-LED side post.
A local, inspectable architecture
The state is intentionally plain enough to inspect with ordinary tools. The phone reads a small local-network endpoint rather than depending on a hosted account, and the components are published so a developer can audit or change the mapping for a different workflow.
Atomic writes prevent the phone from reading a partially updated state file. HTTP caching through ETag avoids transferring the same value repeatedly while keeping the polling model easy to reason about.
Software, not bundled hardware
SidePulse is a software project inspired by physical agent-status lights. It uses a phone screen as the display, so the repository does not include or ship a dedicated LED device.
The source includes the Mac app, iPhone app, and command-line pieces. Setup is for people comfortable cloning and building a project rather than a consumer App Store install.
Current limits
- The Mac and phone need to reach each other on the local network.
- It is a developer-oriented source release, not a hosted monitoring service.
- Agent integrations depend on the lifecycle hooks each coding tool exposes.
- No physical LED hardware is included.