Browser notifications

Generation and validation each take 1–3 minutes. Browser notifications let you start a job, switch to other work, and get pinged when it's done — instead of staring at the progress bar.

This article shows where the toggle lives, when notifications fire, and how to debug them when they don't.

Where the toggle lives

The toggle is on the generation progress screen — i.e., while CodeTeach is actively running a job (generation, validation, or deploy). Look for:

• A "Notify me when done" button (with a bell icon) in the top-right of the progress bar, while a job is running
• Once enabled, the same button changes to "Notifications on" with a green bell

There is no separate Settings → Notifications page right now. The toggle only surfaces when there's an active job — that's when enabling makes sense. Once you've enabled it, the preference is remembered and applies to every future job.

Enabling notifications

1. Start a generation, validation, or deploy job (so the progress screen appears)
2. Click Notify me when done in the top-right of the progress bar
3. Your browser asks for permission to send notifications from codeteach.ai — click Allow
4. The button changes to Notifications on — you're set for this job and all future ones

Once enabled, the preference persists. You don't have to re-enable it every time.

When you'll get notified

A notification fires for:

• Generation complete — your assignment moved from generating to generated, ready for Review & Edit
• Validation complete — your assignment moved from validating to validated (or back to generated with intervention)
• Deploy complete — your assignment moved from deploying to deployed, repo created on GitHub
• Post-push validation result — the real GitHub Actions run finished (passed or failed)

Each notification lasts ~10 seconds, then auto-closes. Click it to jump back to the assignment in CodeTeach.

You won't get notified for status changes you initiated less than 5 seconds ago — no point pinging you the instant you click Generate when you're literally watching the screen.

Disabling notifications

While a job is running, click the Notifications on button (top-right of progress) — it becomes Notify me when done again, and the preference is now off for future jobs. To revoke the browser-level permission entirely, click the lock icon in your browser's URL bar → Site settings → Notifications → Block.

"I clicked Enable and never get notified" — debugging

If notifications were enabled and a job completes but you don't see anything, the issue is almost always at the OS or browser level. Check in this order:

1. macOS Focus mode (most common)

Open System Settings → Focus. Make sure Focus is off, or that your browser is in the allowed-to-notify-during-focus list. Focus mode silently swallows notifications without telling the browser — so you'd see no error anywhere, just no notification.

2. macOS notification settings for the browser

System Settings → Notifications → find your browser (Chrome / Safari / Firefox) → make sure "Allow Notifications" is on, alert style is Banners or Alerts (not None).

3. Windows Focus Assist

Settings → System → Focus assist → set to Off, or add your browser to the priority list.

4. Browser site settings

In Chrome: chrome://settings/content/notifications. Make sure https://codeteach.ai (or dev.codeteach.ai if you're on staging) is in the Allowed list, not the Blocked list.

If CodeTeach was previously blocked, you'll need to remove it from the Blocked list before our re-enable prompt will work.

"Notifications fired but I didn't see them"

Notifications appear briefly in the OS notification area. Common reasons you might miss them:

• Notification banner duration is set to "Brief" in your OS — change to "Persistent" to give yourself time to react
• Many other notifications competing for attention — yours scrolled off-screen
• Multiple monitors — notifications often fire on the primary monitor only

Check the OS's notification center / history (macOS: click the date in the menu bar; Windows: Action Center) — past notifications are listed there.

Privacy note

Notifications don't include the assignment title or any sensitive content — just generic text like "Your assignment is ready." This is intentional in case your laptop is on a desk where students or colleagues can see it.

Why not email?

We considered email-on-completion notifications and decided against them for v1: most jobs are fast enough (1–3 minutes) that an email feels disruptive, and email notifications are easily missed if you're context-switching. Browser notifications are more immediate and less spammy. If you'd find email helpful, let us know via the chat widget — we may revisit.

Where to go next

• Notifications work but the underlying job failed? → When validation fails (validation failure) or Common validation failures (specific error catalogue).
• Stuck on enabling? → Use the chat widget — paste your OS + browser version and we can usually pinpoint the block in one round-trip.