# Nameplate Attention

> On-screen agent alert: topmost message card + pulsating screen borders via Nameplate. Use before password-manager auth prompts or whenever blocked on the human.

- Skill: `steipete/nameplate-attention` (Agent Skill)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add steipete/nameplate-attention`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/steipete/nameplate-attention/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: AI & ML
- Author: steipete (https://skillmd.com/u/steipete)
- Updated: 2026-09-17
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/steipete/nameplate-attention

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# Nameplate Attention

Grab the human's attention at the Mac: a topmost message card plus pulsating colored borders on every display. Always include the reason — never fire a contextless alert.

## Command

- Binary: `nameplate` — `/Applications/Nameplate.app/Contents/Helpers/nameplate` (symlink it onto your PATH; a repo checkout build lives at `<repo>/Nameplate.app/Contents/Helpers/nameplate`).
- `nameplate attention "<why you need the human>" --title "<agent> → <system>" [--duration <seconds>] [--color <hex>] [--wait] [--timeout <seconds>]`
- Example, right before an interactive 1Password `op` prompt (which carries no reason field of its own):
  `nameplate attention "Need 1Password approval for release verification; no secret read." --title "Codex → 1Password" --wait`
- Launches Nameplate.app if it is not running. By default the card stays until the human clicks it; pass `--duration <seconds>` (max 120) for auto-dismiss.
- Pass `--wait` to block until the human clicks or the alert ends. The default wait timeout is 600 seconds; override it with `--timeout <seconds>`.
- With `--wait`, exit `0` means clicked, `3` means app-driven dismissal, and `4` means the wait timed out or the request expired before presentation. Concurrent alerts queue in order.
- Requests are timestamped; anything older than 2 minutes is dropped, so a login-time launch never replays stale alerts.

## Extras

- `nameplate splash` — replay the identity splash (which Mac is this?).
- `nameplate settings` — open Nameplate settings.
- No CLI at hand? `notifyutil -p com.steipete.nameplate.splash` works from any shell, including SSH.