I Made Claude Code Ding When It's Done (And It Changed My Workflow)

This article was originally published on Jo4 Blog.

You know that feeling when you ask Claude Code to refactor a module, switch to Twitter for "just a sec," and come back 12 minutes later to find it's been sitting there waiting for your input for the last 11?

Yeah. That was my Friday evening.

The "Are You Still There?" Problem

I've been using Claude Code as my daily driver while building jo4.io. It's brilliant at crunching through multi-file refactors, running tests, and fixing bugs. But here's the thing - when Claude finishes a task or has a question, it just... sits there. Silently. Like a polite intern who finished their work but doesn't want to interrupt your YouTube rabbit hole.

I needed a way for Claude to tap me on the shoulder. Something that says "Hey, I'm done" or "Hey, I need you" without me obsessively watching the terminal.

The Fix: 5 Lines of JSON

Claude Code has a hook system. I already wrote about PreToolUse hooks for blocking dangerous git commands. Turns out there's a Stop hook that fires every time Claude finishes responding and hands control back to you.

Here's the entire config I added to ~/.claude/settings.json:

{
  "hooks": {
    "Stop": [
      {
        "hooks": [
          {
            "type": "command",
            "command": "afplay /System/Library/Sounds/Funk.aiff",
            "timeout": 5
          }
        ]
      }
    ]
  }
}

That's it. That's the whole thing.

What Happens Now

Every time Claude Code:

Finishes a task and waits for my next instruction
Runs into something it needs my input on
Completes a long test suite run
Asks me a clarifying question

...my Mac plays the Funk sound. You know the one - that satisfying little bonk that macOS has shipped since forever.

Why This Is a Game Changer

Before this, my workflow looked like:

1. Give Claude a task
2. Switch to browser
3. Forget about Claude
4. Come back 15 minutes later
5. Realize it's been waiting for 14 of those minutes
6. Feel guilty
7. Repeat

Now it's:

1. Give Claude a task
2. Switch to browser / grab coffee / stretch
3. *bonk*
4. Switch back immediately
5. Continue where we left off

My feedback loop went from "whenever I remember to check" to instant. I'm not exaggerating when I say this cut my average task turnaround in half - not because Claude got faster, but because I stopped being the bottleneck.

Pick Your Sound

macOS ships with a bunch of system sounds. Want something different? Try these:

# List all available system sounds
ls /System/Library/Sounds/

# Some favorites:
afplay /System/Library/Sounds/Glass.aiff    # Subtle, clean
afplay /System/Library/Sounds/Ping.aiff     # Classic notification
afplay /System/Library/Sounds/Hero.aiff     # Triumphant finish
afplay /System/Library/Sounds/Purr.aiff     # Gentle nudge
afplay /System/Library/Sounds/Funk.aiff     # The OG (my pick)

On Linux, you could use paplay, aplay, or even espeak "done" if you want Claude to literally tell you it's finished. On Windows WSL, powershell.exe -c "(New-Object Media.SoundPlayer 'C:\Windows\Media\notify.wav').PlaySync()" works.

Going Further: Conditional Sounds

Want different sounds for different situations? The Stop hook receives JSON on stdin with a last_assistant_message field. You could parse that to play a success sound when tests pass and an error sound when something breaks:

#!/bin/bash
input=$(cat)
message=$(echo "$input" | jq -r '.last_assistant_message // empty')

if echo "$message" | grep -qi "error\|fail\|blocked"; then
  afplay /System/Library/Sounds/Basso.aiff
else
  afplay /System/Library/Sounds/Funk.aiff
fi

Save that as ~/.claude/stop-sound.sh, make it executable, and point your hook at it instead.

The Full Picture

Combined with the PreToolUse hooks I set up earlier, my ~/.claude/settings.json now looks like:

{
  "hooks": {
    "Stop": [
      {
        "hooks": [
          {
            "type": "command",
            "command": "afplay /System/Library/Sounds/Funk.aiff",
            "timeout": 5
          }
        ]
      }
    ],
    "PreToolUse": [
      {
        "matcher": "Bash",
        "hooks": [
          {
            "type": "command",
            "command": "~/.claude/block-git.sh",
            "timeout": 10
          },
          {
            "type": "command",
            "command": "~/.claude/block-cd.sh",
            "timeout": 10
          }
        ]
      }
    ]
  }
}

PreToolUse hooks keep Claude safe. Stop hooks keep me in the loop. Together they make Claude Code feel less like a tool and more like a teammate who knows when to wait and when to nudge.

These are the little things that make your day as a nerdy engineer. A five-line config change, a system sound you've heard a thousand times, and suddenly your entire AI-assisted workflow just clicks. It's not a groundbreaking feature. It's not going to make the front page of Hacker News. But it'll save you dozens of context-switch minutes every single day, and you'll wonder why you didn't set it up sooner.

Have you set up Stop hooks yet? What sound did you pick? Drop a comment - I'm genuinely curious what sounds people gravitate toward. Bonus points if you went the espeak route and have Claude literally talking to you.

Building jo4.io - a modern URL shortener with analytics, bio pages, and team workspaces.

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