feat(cli): --notify-level to control watch round noise (#803) by tamirdresher · Pull Request #805 · github/squad

tamirdresher · 2026-04-04T07:02:44Z

What

Adds --notify-level flag and config option to control how verbose watch round reporting is. Default changed from 'all' to 'important' — empty rounds are now silenced.

Why

Watch console output forwarded to Teams/webhook produces spam: 'Round 160, Round 161...' with no machine or repo attribution. Users can't tell what's happening or where. Closes #803

How

New notifyLevel field in WatchConfig: all | important (default) | none
reportBoard() accepts ReportOptions with notifyLevel, machineName, repoName
In important mode: empty rounds produce zero output
Round headers now include (hostname · repo) for attribution
CLI flag: --notify-level important
Config: .squad/config.json → { watch: { notifyLevel: 'important' } }

Testing

npm run build passes
npm test passes (5 new tests)

Docs

Changeset entry

Exports

N/A

Breaking Changes

Behavioral: Default changed from printing every round to only printing rounds with work. Use --notify-level all to restore old behavior.

Waivers

None

- Default 'important': only print rounds with actual work items - 'all': old behavior (every round including empty) - 'none': suppress all round output - Add machine name + repo name to round headers for attribution - Configurable via .squad/config.json watch.notifyLevel - 5 new tests Co-authored-by: Copilot <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>

github-actions · 2026-04-04T07:02:57Z

🛫 PR Readiness Check

ℹ️ This comment updates on each push. Last checked: commit a6436f2

⚠️ 4 item(s) to address before review

Status	Check	Details
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✅	Changeset present	Changeset file found
✅	Scope clean	No .squad/ or docs/proposals/ files
✅	No merge conflicts	No merge conflicts
❌	Copilot threads resolved	3 unresolved Copilot thread(s) — fix and resolve before merging
❌	CI passing	15 check(s) still running

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Copilot

Pull request overview

Adds a new watch/triage verbosity control to reduce “empty round” spam in squad watch, and improves round output attribution for forwarded logs.

Changes:

Introduces notifyLevel (all | important | none) in WatchConfig, with default important.
Extends reportBoard() to accept ReportOptions (notifyLevel + optional machine/repo attribution) and wires it into runWatch().
Adds --notify-level CLI parsing plus a changeset entry and new tests.

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 5 out of 5 changed files in this pull request and generated 5 comments.

Show a summary per file

File	Description
`test/watch-notify-level.test.ts`	Adds unit tests for `reportBoard()` behavior under different `notifyLevel` modes and attribution fields.
`packages/squad-cli/src/cli/commands/watch/index.ts`	Adds `ReportOptions` + notify-level gating to `reportBoard()` and includes `(hostname · repo)` in round headers.
`packages/squad-cli/src/cli/commands/watch/config.ts`	Adds `notifyLevel` to config schema/defaults and normalizes it from `.squad/config.json`.
`packages/squad-cli/src/cli-entry.ts`	Parses `--notify-level` and passes it into `loadWatchConfig()` overrides.
`.changeset/quiet-notifications.md`	Documents the new flag/config and the default behavior change.

Copilot · 2026-04-04T07:06:47Z

+export function reportBoard(state: BoardState, round: number, options?: ReportOptions): void {
+  const level = options?.notifyLevel ?? 'important';
+  if (level === 'none') return;
+
  const total = Object.values(state).reduce((a, b) => a + b, 0);
+
+  // In 'important' mode, suppress empty rounds entirely
+  if (total === 0 && level === 'important') return;
+
  if (total === 0) {
    console.log(`${DIM}📋 Board is clear — Ralph is idling${RESET}`);


reportBoard() now defaults to notifyLevel: 'important', which means calling it without options suppresses all output for empty board states. Because reportBoard is exported and used directly in the test suite, this default is a breaking behavioral change and will cause callers that expect the "Board is clear" message to stop seeing any output. Consider keeping reportBoard's default at 'all' (preserve the function's historical behavior) and have runWatch() pass the desired config.notifyLevel explicitly (defaulting to 'important' at the watch-command/config layer).

Copilot · 2026-04-04T07:06:47Z

  if (total === 0) {
    console.log(`${DIM}📋 Board is clear — Ralph is idling${RESET}`);
    return;
  }
-  console.log(`\n${BOLD}🔄 Ralph — Round ${round}${RESET}`);
+
+  // Build context tag for attribution
+  const ctx = [options?.machineName, options?.repoName].filter(Boolean).join(' · ');
+  const ctxSuffix = ctx ? ` ${DIM}(${ctx})${RESET}` : '';
+
+  console.log(`\n${BOLD}🔄 Ralph — Round ${round}${RESET}${ctxSuffix}`);


In notifyLevel: 'all' mode, the empty-board path logs only "Board is clear — Ralph is idling" and does not include the round header or the (machine · repo) attribution. That undermines the stated goal of making forwarded output attributable (and makes it hard to correlate to a specific round). Consider including the same context tag (and optionally the round number) in the clear-board message when machineName/repoName are provided, or printing a round header even for empty rounds in all mode.

Copilot · 2026-04-04T07:06:47Z

+  /**
+   * Controls how verbose watch round reporting is.
+   * - 'all'       — print every round (current behavior)
+   * - 'important' — only print rounds with actual work (default)
+   * - 'none'      — suppress all round reporting
+   */
+  notifyLevel?: 'all' | 'important' | 'none';
+  /** Verbose diagnostics (--verbose flag). */
+  verbose?: boolean;
 }


WatchConfig introduces a verbose option and documents it as coming from a --verbose flag, but there is no CLI parsing for --verbose and the value is not referenced anywhere in the watch implementation. This is misleading documentation and effectively a dead config knob. Either remove verbose from WatchConfig/normalize logic for now, or implement the flag parsing and wire config.verbose into actual diagnostics output.

Copilot · 2026-04-04T07:06:48Z

+  it('suppresses empty rounds in important mode (default)', () => {
+    const logs: string[] = [];
+    const origLog = console.log;
+    console.log = (...args: unknown[]) => logs.push(args.join(' '));
+    try {
+      reportBoard(emptyState(), 42, { notifyLevel: 'important' });
+      expect(logs).toHaveLength(0);
+    } finally {
+      console.log = origLog;
+    }


These tests reassign console.log directly. Vitest commonly runs test files in parallel workers, so mutating the global console.log function can create cross-test interference/flakiness (and it’s inconsistent with existing tests in this repo that use vi.spyOn(console, 'log')). Prefer vi.spyOn(console, 'log').mockImplementation(...) plus vi.restoreAllMocks() in afterEach to keep the capture isolated and automatically restored.

Copilot · 2026-04-04T07:06:48Z

+- `--notify-level important` (default): only print rounds with actual work items
+- `--notify-level all`: print every round including empty (old behavior)
+- `--notify-level none`: suppress all round output
+- Add machine name (`os.hostname()`) and repo name to round headers for attribution
+- Configurable via `.squad/config.json` watch section: `"notifyLevel": "important"`
+- Empty rounds silenced by default — no more "Round 160, Round 161" spam


This changeset states machine/repo attribution is added to "round headers", but in notifyLevel: 'all' mode empty rounds currently print only the clear-board message without any (machine · repo) context. Either update the implementation so empty-round output also includes attribution, or tweak the changeset wording so it doesn’t overstate the attribution coverage.

- notification-level.md: full feature doc for --notify-level - ralph.md: add --notify-level + --cleanup to capabilities table - 030-v092-whats-coming.md: blog post covering all 10 features in next release Co-authored-by: Copilot <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>

captureBoardOutput now defaults to 'all' mode to preserve existing test behavior. The production default is 'important' but tests need to verify clear-board message formatting. Co-authored-by: Copilot <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>

CSpell docs-quality CI was failing because 'WCBED' is an unknown word. Replaced CPC-tamir-WCBED with DEVBOX-01 in the blog post and notification-level feature doc. Co-authored-by: Copilot <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>

- Add JSDoc to reportBoard() documenting default notifyLevel='important' - Include machine/repo context in 'Board is clear' message for all modes - Add comment noting verbose flag parsing is in PR #782 - Replace console.log direct mutation with vi.spyOn in tests - Update changeset to clarify attribution is in round headers and clear message Co-authored-by: Copilot <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>

tamirdresher · 2026-04-04T19:27:10Z

Superseded by #830 — combined into a single watch next-gen PR for easier review.

tamirdresher · 2026-04-04T20:11:24Z

Closing — superseded by #830 (watch-next-gen combined PR)

tamirdresher requested review from Copilot and diberry April 4, 2026 07:02

Copilot started reviewing on behalf of tamirdresher April 4, 2026 07:03

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Copilot AI reviewed Apr 4, 2026

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Copilot and others added 3 commits April 4, 2026 10:07

tmtBrett mentioned this pull request Apr 4, 2026

flickering in squad cli when used in VS Code terminal #747

Closed

tamirdresher and others added 2 commits April 4, 2026 18:29

Merge branch 'dev' into squad/803-quiet-notifications

c72c908

tamirdresher mentioned this pull request Apr 4, 2026

feat(watch): next-gen watch with execute redesign, robustness, and PS1 parity #830

Merged

tamirdresher closed this Apr 4, 2026

bradygaster deleted the squad/803-quiet-notifications branch August 8, 2026 08:41

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feat(cli): --notify-level to control watch round noise (#803) - #805

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