terminal-notifier

TLDR

Send a basic notification

$ terminal-notifier -message "[Task completed]"

Send with title and subtitle

$ terminal-notifier -title "[Build]" -subtitle "[Success]" -message "[All tests passed]"

Send with a sound

$ terminal-notifier -message "[Done]" -sound default

Send and open URL on click

$ terminal-notifier -message "[New issue]" -open "[https://github.com]"

Send and activate an app on click

$ terminal-notifier -message "[Sync complete]" -activate [com.apple.AddressBook]

Send from piped input

$ echo "[Build finished]" | terminal-notifier

Group notifications (replace previous)

$ terminal-notifier -group "[build]" -message "[Completed]"

SYNOPSIS

terminal-notifier [-title title] [-subtitle subtitle] [-message message] [-sound name] [-group id] [-activate bundleid] [-open url]

terminal-notifier sends macOS User Notifications from the command line. It enables scripts and terminal commands to display native system notifications with customizable content, sounds, and click actions.
Notifications can include titles, subtitles, message bodies, and sounds. Click actions can open URLs, activate applications, or execute callbacks. Group identifiers allow replacing previous notifications instead of stacking them.
The tool is useful for alerting when long-running processes complete, such as builds, downloads, or scheduled tasks.

PARAMETERS

-message text

The notification message body (required unless piping)

-title text

The notification title (default: "Terminal")

-subtitle text

The notification subtitle

-sound name

Play a sound from /System/Library/Sounds; use "default" for system default

-group id

Group identifier; only one notification per group shown at a time

-activate bundleid

Activate specified app when notification is clicked

-open url

Open URL when notification is clicked

-remove id

Remove notification with specified group ID

-list id

List notifications with specified group ID

CAVEATS

Sticky notifications (alerts) require manual configuration in System Settings > Notifications > terminal-notifier. Action buttons are not supported; use alerter for that functionality. Requires macOS 10.10 or higher.

HISTORY

terminal-notifier was created by Eloy Durán (julienXX) as an open-source tool to bring macOS notifications to command-line workflows. It became popular for integrating native notifications into development toolchains.