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iPhone alerts

The alert action is built to push a notification straight to your iPhone — not the paired Mac — once the iPhone app is installed (see the note below). Use it for “the build finished” or “Claude is done” pings when you’ve stepped away from the desk: the message lands on your phone even when you’re nowhere near the Mac.

Unlike every other CommandLatch action, alert doesn’t run anything on a Mac. It delivers a notification to every iPhone signed into your account that has the CommandLatch app installed with notifications enabled.

The message

Section titled “The message”

Every alert carries a title and a body:

  • body — the main line of the notification (the custom message).
  • title — the bold first line. Defaults to CommandLatch.

How you set them depends on where you fire the alert from. Where a payload is involved, the values you pass merge over the saved defaults, so a single webhook or shortcut can ship a fixed title with a per-call body.

Trigger it

Section titled “Trigger it”

alert is offered everywhere CommandLatch actions are — the action picker in the dashboard’s webhook and shortcut forms now lists it alongside lock, sleep, and keep-awake.

From the CLI

Section titled “From the CLI”
Terminal window
commandlatch alert "Build finished"
commandlatch alert "Deploy succeeded" --title "CI"

The positional argument is the body; --title overrides the default title. Full reference: the commandlatch CLI.

From a webhook

Section titled “From a webhook”

Create a webhook with the alert action (optionally with a default title/body), then POST a body to override the message per call:

{ "payload": { "title": "CI", "body": "Deploy succeeded" } }

The payload merges on top of the webhook’s stored defaults — so you can pin the title once and vary only the body from each request. See Webhooks for the signing scheme.

From an Apple Shortcut

Section titled “From an Apple Shortcut”

Create a shortcut with the alert action, then (optionally) POST the same payload to customise the message at run time:

{ "payload": { "body": "Backup complete" } }

A shortcut with a fixed body needs no request body at all — just open the URL. See Shortcut endpoints and Siri & phone shortcuts.

Set up iPhone alerts

Section titled “Set up iPhone alerts”

These steps apply once the iPhone app is available. On each iPhone you want to reach:

  1. Install the CommandLatch iOS app — coming soon (not yet on the App Store). When it ships you’ll install it, sign in with the same email as your Mac, and grant Notifications. We’ll update this page with the App Store link.
  2. Sign in with the same account as your Mac (the same email).
  3. Enable Notifications — grant the permission when the app asks on first launch. If you skipped it, turn it on later in Settings → CommandLatch → Notifications.

Once a phone is set up, every alert you fire is delivered to it. Set up as many iPhones as you like — alerts fan out to all of them.

Troubleshooting

Section titled “Troubleshooting”
  • No notification arrives. Confirm the iPhone is signed into the same account as your Mac, the CommandLatch app is installed, and notifications are allowed in Settings → CommandLatch → Notifications. A Focus / Do Not Disturb mode silences the banner.
  • Alert shows “No devices”. No iPhone is registered to receive it yet — expected until the iPhone app ships and you sign in on a phone. The alert is still logged in the dashboard Notifications view.
  • alert isn’t in the action picker. It only appears for accounts on CommandLatch Pro. Check your plan in the dashboard.
  • The title shows “CommandLatch” instead of mine. Pass --title on the CLI, or set title in the webhook/shortcut payload — without one, the alert falls back to the default CommandLatch title.

See also

Section titled “See also”