Feature Request: Hooks system for notifications (similar to Claude Code)

[tomerweller]

Summary

Add a hooks system that allows users to run custom shell commands when certain events occur, such as when the CLI is waiting for user input.

Use Case

When running Copilot CLI on remote development machines (via SSH), users often step away while the agent works on tasks. Having a notification system (e.g., Pushover, ntfy, Slack webhook) would alert users when their attention is needed, improving workflow efficiency.

Proposed Solution

A hooks configuration similar to Claude Code's implementation:

// ~/.copilot/hooks.json
{
  "hooks": {
    "prompt": [
      {
        "type": "command",
        "command": "curl -s -X POST https://api.pushover.net/1/messages.json -d 'token=XXX&user=YYY&message=Copilot needs input'"
      }
    ]
  }
}

Suggested hook events:

• prompt - When waiting for user input
• tool_start / tool_end - When tools execute
• session_start / session_end - Session lifecycle

Alternatives Considered

• Terminal beep (beep: true) - Works but not useful for remote/background sessions
• Wrapper scripts monitoring output - Hacky and unreliable

Additional Context

Claude Code has this feature and it significantly improves the remote development experience. Reference: https://docs.anthropic.com/en/docs/claude-code/hooks

[RyanHecht]

Going to let you in on a little secret: we support hooks now! We're finishing up getting docs out this week, and then you'll see more wide communication about it.

You define them in .github/hooks/*.json.

Example schema:

{
  "version": 1,
  "hooks": {
    "preToolUse": [{
      "type": "command",
      "bash": "./scripts/validate.sh"
    }]
  }
}

Here are the events we support

Event	When it fires	Can deny?
sessionStart	Session begins or resumes	No
sessionEnd	Session completes	No
userPromptSubmitted	User submits a prompt	No
preToolUse	Before any tool runs	Yes
postToolUse	After a tool completes	No
errorOccurred	When an error occurs	No

Your script receives JSON on stdin and can return {"permissionDecision": "deny", "permissionDecisionReason": "..."} to deny execution on applicable events.

Scott Hanselman made this nice app to send a Windows toast when the agent needs his input: https://github.com/shanselman/toasty

[kb9c4nprcb-art]

I'm very impressed by Copilot CLI. I'm using it while waiting for my Max 20 subscription to recharge and so far it's the only one to hold a candle to CC in my opinion. Far better than Gemini and Codex. If you want an opinion, adding some of the standard readline shortcuts would be really nice: ctrl-a, ctrl-e, meta-f/b, ctrl-- (ctrl minus) for undo, ctrl-q for stash (it's ctrl-s in CC). It's those small things that make dedicated users really happy.

Love to see you've got hooks, this is one area that not many of the other CLIs have gotten to. The two pieces of functionality I use in hooks are rewriting the prompt in userPromptSubmitted, and then blocking Stop to submit another prompt. By chaining these two, it's possible to set up a very lightweight queuing system for commands. I can submit N separate commands in a prompt, and all but the first are removed and added to the queue. On the stop event, I take the next one off and run it. Code is here: https://github.com/loom99-public/loom99-claude-marketplace/tree/master/plugins/do/scripts

cmd-queue-parse.py runs on userPromptSubmit to populate the queue
cmd-queue-run.py runs on Stop to take from the queue, block Stop, and send the next prompt back through the loop

What I'm getting at is this ability to intercept and rewrite the prompt on submit and the ability to do the same on stop are incredibly powerful primitives that be assembled into a wide variety of workflows.

I'd consider getting at least those two on the roadmap sometime. If I could clear or compact the context in this flow (which claude does not allow unfortunately) that would make it even better.

[crmitchelmore]

@RyanHecht any chance you could support hooks being defined at the system/global level when you roll out too?

[SIkebe]

Public docs!
https://docs.github.com/en/copilot/concepts/agents/coding-agent/about-hooks
https://docs.github.com/en/copilot/how-tos/use-copilot-agents/coding-agent/use-hooks
https://docs.github.com/en/copilot/reference/hooks-configuration

[RyanHecht]

You beat me to it, @SIkebe ;)

[RyanHecht]

I'm closing this issue out! If anyone has any additional hooks feature requests, please open them up as new issues so we can track them! Thanks for your interest in hooks, I can't wait to see what you folks build!