feat(notify): make permission-prompt alerts on by default and discoverable

[gauravbhatia4601]

Summary

The notify system (terminal bell + OSC-9 desktop notification on permission prompts and completion) already existed, but it was silent by default and undiscoverable: the resolver left notify.mode/focusMode empty unless the user hand-edited ~/.config/zero/config.json, and there was no UI surface to find or change the setting. A first-run user sees a permission prompt with no alert and reasonably concludes permission prompts are broken.

This PR makes the alert work out of the box and adds two discoverable surfaces, all going through one writer so they stay in lockstep:

• Resolver default: when the notify block is missing or empty, fall back to mode=both, focusMode=unfocused (internal/config/resolver.go). Users who explicitly set off or any other value are unaffected.
• /notify slash command (TUI): popup picker with four (mode, focus) pairs, mirroring the existing /theme picker pattern (internal/tui/notify_select.go, internal/tui/picker.go). Explicit choices persist to user config. A mode-only argument preserves the existing focus rule.
• zero config notify (CLI): print current values, or update with --mode <off|bell|notify|both> --focus <unfocused|always|focused>, --reset to clear, --json for scripts (internal/cli/config_notify.go).
• config.SetNotify writer: read-modify-atomic-write via the existing writeConfigFile helper, validating against the same vocabulary the resolver accepts (internal/config/writer.go).

Notes on two changes that are downstream of the default, not scope creep:

• effectiveTUINotifyMode (empty → ModeBoth instead of ModeOff) exists so the TUI's notifier and the resolver agree on the default — required by the first bullet of the issue.
• internal/cli/exec_test.go adds "notify": {"mode": "off"} to one test's fixture because that test asserted empty stderr, which the old silent default implicitly provided.

Linked issue

Per CONTRIBUTING.md, linked to the approved parent issue:

Fixes #579

Checklist

• The linked issue already has the issue-approved label.
• go build ./..., go vet ./..., and go test ./... pass locally.
• gofmt clean.
• Tests added/updated for the change (and run under -race where relevant).
• UI changes include screenshots or a short recording where possible.

Tests: 25 new (7 resolver defaults, 5 SetNotify, 9 /notify command + picker, 7 zero config notify — one later reworked as part of a simplification pass), 1 updated (TestEffectiveTUINotifyMode), full suite go test ./... -race green across 74 packages, plus go run ./cmd/zero-release build and smoke locally.

Screenshots to follow in a follow-up comment on this PR (terminal-only change; the picker renders inside the TUI).

Summary by CodeRabbit

• New Features

  • Added /notify to configure, disable, or view notification preferences during a session.
  • Added an interactive notification picker covering all mode and focus combinations.
  • Added zero config notify and related help and summary commands.

• Improvements

  • Notification changes apply immediately and persist user-selected settings.
  • Unconfigured options now display as defaults without overriding project or built-in preferences.
  • Improved handling of partial updates, resets, and invalid notification settings.

[coderabbitai]

Walkthrough

The change adds config notify and /notify controls, separates user-stored settings from resolved defaults, supports complete mode and focus selection, and makes runtime notifier configuration synchronized.

Changes

Notification preferences

Layer / File(s)	Summary
Notification defaults and persistence internal/config/writer.go, internal/config/resolver_test.go, internal/config/writer_test.go, internal/cli/exec_test.go	UserNotify reads trimmed user settings. SetNotify validates and persists values while preserving blank defaults. Resolver, writer, and fixture tests cover unset, explicit, and reset states.
CLI notification configuration internal/cli/command_center.go, internal/cli/config_notify.go, internal/cli/config_notify_test.go	zero config dispatches summary, notify, and help. Partial updates seed from the user file. Output distinguishes unset values from explicit settings in text and JSON.
Runtime notifier reconfiguration internal/notify/notify.go, internal/notify/notify_test.go	Notifier.Configure replaces policy under the mutex. Notify reads a locked configuration snapshot. Concurrent configuration and notification are tested.
TUI notification command and picker internal/tui/commands.go, internal/tui/model.go, internal/tui/notify_select.go, internal/tui/picker.go, internal/tui/*_test.go	The TUI adds /notify, supports text and picker input, enumerates all 12 mode/focus pairs, preserves stored values, updates the live notifier, and persists selections.

Estimated code review effort: 4 (Complex) | ~45 minutes

Merge Risk: 🔵 Low · up to 703d9

Notification preferences can now be managed without a configured provider, but reset help text incorrectly implies defaults apply outside the TUI. This is a bounded documentation issue that should be corrected before or shortly after merge.

Sequence Diagram(s)

sequenceDiagram
  participant TUI
  participant NotificationCommand
  participant UserConfig
  participant Notifier
  TUI->>NotificationCommand: submit /notify mode and focus
  NotificationCommand->>UserConfig: read and persist user preference
  NotificationCommand->>Notifier: configure live notification policy
  Notifier-->>TUI: apply notification behavior
  NotificationCommand-->>TUI: display status

Loading

Possibly related PRs

• Gitlawb/zero#149: Both changes modify notification configuration and TUI notifier behavior.

🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 3 | ❌ 2

❌ Failed checks (2 warnings)

Check name	Status	Explanation	Resolution
Linked Issues check	⚠️ Warning	The PR satisfies the discoverability, TUI command, CLI command, validated writer, vocabulary validation, persistence, and live-update objectives in [#579]. It does not satisfy the explicit requirement…	Implement the requested resolver fallback for missing or empty notify settings, or update [#579] and its acceptance criteria to explicitly define the TUI-only default behavior while preserving silent non-TUI execution.
Docstring Coverage	⚠️ Warning	Docstring coverage is 61.29% which is insufficient. The required threshold is 80.00%. Docstring coverage is scoped to functions touched by this diff. Analyzed 62 functions across 16 files.	Write docstrings for the functions missing them to satisfy the coverage threshold.

✅ Passed checks (3 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Description Check	✅ Passed	Check skipped - CodeRabbit’s high-level summary is enabled.
Title check	✅ Passed	The title accurately identifies the primary notification-default and discoverability changes. The default is applied in the TUI, so the wording is somewhat broad but remains related.
Out of Scope Changes check	✅ Passed	The changes remain within the notification feature scope in [#579]. The CLI, TUI, configuration persistence, runtime notifier updates, resolver behavior, and related tests directly support the stated …

Full details: Linked Issues check

Explanation

The PR satisfies the discoverability, TUI command, CLI command, validated writer, vocabulary validation, persistence, and live-update objectives in [#579]. It does not satisfy the explicit requirement that the resolver fall back to mode=both and focusMode=unfocused for missing or empty settings; the resolver remains unset and only the TUI applies the effective default.

Full details: Out of Scope Changes check

Explanation

The changes remain within the notification feature scope in [#579]. The CLI, TUI, configuration persistence, runtime notifier updates, resolver behavior, and related tests directly support the stated objectives.

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Actionable comments posted: 3

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Inline comments:
In `@internal/cli/config_notify.go`:
- Line 37: Update the notification update flow around the notify construction
and config.SetNotify so omitted mode or focus flags reuse their current resolved
values instead of empty values; keep --reset as the sole path that clears both
fields. Add tests covering mode-only and focus-only updates.

In `@internal/tui/notify_select.go`:
- Line 64: Update the `/notify` handler’s token validation to reject inputs
containing more than two tokens, while preserving the existing handling for
valid one- and two-token commands. Ensure trailing arguments such as extra words
are not treated as successful changes.
- Around line 72-73: Update the notify-mode handling around m.notifyMode,
m.notifyFocusMode, and m.notifier so the live notify.Notifier receives the
selected configuration before reporting the change as active; keep
persistNotifyPreference for subsequent startups.

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📒 Files selected for processing (14)

• internal/cli/command_center.go
• internal/cli/config_notify.go
• internal/cli/config_notify_test.go
• internal/cli/exec_test.go
• internal/config/resolver.go
• internal/config/resolver_test.go
• internal/config/writer.go
• internal/config/writer_test.go
• internal/tui/commands.go
• internal/tui/model.go
• internal/tui/model_test.go
• internal/tui/notify_select.go
• internal/tui/notify_select_test.go
• internal/tui/picker.go

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[gauravbhatia4601]

Addressed all three CodeRabbit findings in 334c688:

1. config_notify.go — omitted flags wiping stored values: fixed. Omitted --mode/--focus now reuse the current resolved value; --reset is the only path that clears both. Added TestRunConfigNotifyFocusOnlyPreservesMode and strengthened TestRunConfigNotifyWritesModeChange to assert focus preservation.

2. notify_select.go — trailing /notify arguments silently accepted: fixed. More than two tokens now returns a usage error (TestNotifyCommandRejectsTrailingArguments).

3. notify_select.go — choice not applied to the live notifier: fixed, and the finding was right that the old message overclaimed. Added notify.Notifier.Configure (mutex-guarded policy swap preserving sinks/focus/writer, TestConfigureAppliesImmediatelyAndKeepsSinks); /notify now calls it, so the change applies on the next permission prompt in the same session (TestNotifyCommandAppliesToLiveNotifier). The "applies on next prompt" line was replaced by the persistence note only.

On the docstring pre-merge warning (51% vs 80%): the new exported surface (SetNotify, Configure, the /notify handler) is documented; the gap is concentrated in small unexported test helpers and arg-parsing internals consistent with the surrounding code's comment density. Happy to add more if maintainers want it.

Full suite: go test ./... -race green (85 packages), go run ./cmd/zero-release build + smoke pass, gofmt/vet clean.

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Actionable comments posted: 1

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Inline comments:
In `@internal/notify/notify.go`:
- Line 80: Update Notify to acquire n.mu before reading n.cfg, perform the mode
check inside that critical section, and copy the configuration to a local cfg
used for all subsequent reads. Add a regression test that runs Configure
concurrently with Notify under the race detector.

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• internal/cli/config_notify.go
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• internal/notify/notify_test.go
• internal/tui/notify_select.go
• internal/tui/notify_select_test.go

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• internal/cli/config_notify.go
• internal/tui/notify_select.go
• internal/cli/config_notify_test.go
• internal/tui/notify_select_test.go

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[Vasanthdev2004]

Thanks for this, and sorry it sat unreviewed for a while. The feature is worth having and the lock fix in the last commit is right. Three things to fix before it lands, and they are all one mistake, so I have written them as one.

The root of it: the PR treats the resolved config as if it were the user's choice. config.Resolve now fills in notify.mode when the user set nothing, and three separate paths then read that filled-in value back as though a person had picked it.

1. The default reaches headless zero exec, and the change that hides it is in the test fixture.

exec.go:505 builds the notifier with FocusMode: FocusAlways and no TTY or CI check, with a comment saying it always emits when a mode is configured. Before this PR an unconfigured user resolved to an empty mode and the notifier returned before writing; now it writes. On head an ordinary zero exec puts 17 bytes of BEL and OSC-9 on stderr where base wrote nothing, including under -o json and -o stream-json.

The only change this PR makes to that path is adding "notify": {"mode": "off"} to the fixture of TestRunExecUsesProjectConfigAndOpenAICompatibleProvider, which is the repo's existing empty-stderr canary. Put the fixture back the way base has it and the test fails on its own property assertion:

exec_test.go:992: expected empty stderr, got "\a\x1b]9;Zero: ready\a"
--- FAIL: TestRunExecUsesProjectConfigAndOpenAICompatibleProvider

The decisive part is that the resolver default is not needed for the feature at all. effectiveTUINotifyMode at internal/tui/model.go:890 already maps an empty mode to both on the TUI side by itself, so moving the default out of Resolve and leaving it to the TUI makes exec silent again, lets that fixture go back, and keeps the behaviour you actually want. Worth noting too that zero exec emits Completion, while the permission-prompt alert this PR is about is AwaitingInput from model.go:5642 and :5678, so exec was never in scope. A rider on the same cause: with ZERO_NOTIFY_WEBHOOK_URL set, a headless run now POSTs on every completion where base sent none, which also makes webhook_wire.go's "for example --notify both" comment stale.

2. zero config notify writes a value the user did not choose into their global config.

config_notify.go:40 seeds the write from resolved.Notify, which is project-merged and default-filled, and config.SetNotify then replaces the whole block in the user file. So running zero config notify --focus always inside a repo whose .zero/config.json sets mode: off copies that project's off into the user's global config, where it follows them into every other project, even though the only flag they passed was --focus. With no project config at all, --mode off still writes focusMode: unfocused, pinning today's built-in default as an explicit choice, which contradicts SetNotify's own comment that a blank value means use defaults.

The comment above that block only reasons about the omitted-flag case, and it is right that a full replace would be wrong. The missing half is that the preserved value has to come from the user's own file, not from the resolved view. Nothing pins this: none of the new tests pass a ProjectConfigPath, so resolved and user are the same object and the bug cannot show. The same shape is in the TUI's mode-only branch at notify_select.go:73, which reuses m.notifyFocusMode seeded from the resolved value.

3. The picker preselects a row that is not your current setting, and Enter commits it.

picker.go:1073 says the active pair is preselected so Enter keeps it, and that holds for the four canned rows. For the other eight valid pairs the cursor falls to row 0, so opening a bare /notify on (off, always) and pressing Enter writes (both, unfocused). /notify bell, the value the command's own usage string advertises, produces a pair the picker cannot represent, and the "Bell only" row means (bell, always), so the two surfaces disagree on what bell is. TestNotifyPickerOpensOnBareNotify asserts preselection only for an in-list pair, so all eleven notify tests stay green. newThemePicker enumerates its whole domain, which is why the same fallback is harmless there.

The fix, as one change. Move the default out of config.Resolve into the TUI, where effectiveTUINotifyMode already does the job. Seed the zero config notify write, and the TUI's mode-only branch, from the user config file's own notify block so an omitted flag preserves the user's value and a blank field stays blank. Then either enumerate the full mode and focus space in the picker the way the theme picker does, or keep the four curated rows and refuse to commit on Enter when the active pair is not one of them. Three tests would have caught all of this: one that zero exec writes nothing to stderr on a clean run, one that passes a ProjectConfigPath to zero config notify, and one that sends Enter to an open picker from a pair that is not in the list.

Things I checked that are fine, so you do not need to chase them: the concurrency fix is load-bearing and reachable, since Configure runs on the update goroutine and Notify fires from the run goroutine; an explicit opt-out survives resolution in every shape including whitespace and both config layers; the picker opens no new path to a permission decision and does not disturb pending attachments; only Enter and the repeat click commit, and navigation, Esc, resize and paste write nothing; SetNotify validates both fields, preserves unrelated top-level keys and writes through temp-file and rename. The unknown-key loss in writeConfigFile is pre-existing and repo-wide, not something this PR introduces, and action.yml already passes --no-notify, so CI job logs are not the exposed surface. Direct zero exec from a script or cron is.

[gauravbhatia4601]

Thank you for the thorough review — implemented in 18e851a, exactly the one-change shape you described.

Root cause removed: the resolver no longer fills notify defaults. Defaults live only where a human is sitting — the TUI's effectiveTUINotifyMode already did the job, so the permission-prompt alert still works on first run, and:

1. exec is silent again, byte-identical to base. The TestRunExecUsesProjectConfigAndOpenAICompatibleProvider fixture is restored to base form, and the new TestResolveNotifyUnconfiguredStaysEmpty pins the property itself (no config file / empty config / empty block / mode-only all resolve empty). The webhook sink is no longer armed by an implicit default either — I updated the stale webhook_wire.go wording you called out as part of the same commit.
2. zero config notify seeds from the user's own file. New config.UserNotify(path) reads the user's notify block; omitted flags preserve it (blank stays blank), --reset is still the only clearing path. TestRunConfigNotifyDoesNotCopyProjectNotifyIntoUserConfig resolves exactly like production (user + project config merged) and proves a project's mode: off stays in the project file. TestRunConfigNotifyDoesNotPinDefaultsAsExplicitChoices proves --mode off on a clean config writes nothing for focusMode. The TUI's mode-only branch reads the same helper.
3. The picker enumerates the full 4×3 space (12 rows, mode · focus labels, like newThemePicker enumerates its domain). Every valid pair is a row, so the current pair is always preselected and Enter always keeps or explicitly changes the user's setting — including (off, always) and the /notify bell shape the old curated list couldn't represent. TestNotifyPickerEnumeratesFullSpace + TestNotifyPickerEnterOnUnlistedPairKeepsSetting (your suggested Enter-on-unlisted-pair regression, asserting the persisted pair is unchanged).

All three of your suggested tests are in, plus the TUI/CLI/config suites updated to the new semantics: go test ./internal/config ./internal/notify ./internal/tui -race green; full suite green except TestRunAuthOpenRouterSavesMintedKey, which fails identically on clean origin/main on this machine (macOS keychain helper killed under a sanitized env — pre-existing, no notify involvement); zero-release build + smoke, gofmt/vet, git diff --check all clean.

Also confirmed your "checked, fine" list stayed that way — the race fix, atomic write, validation, and opt-out paths are untouched by this commit.

[coderabbitai]

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⚠️ Outside diff range comments (1)

internal/cli/config_notify.go (1)

27-27: 🎯 Functional Correctness | 🟠 Major | ⚡ Quick win

Decouple notification preferences from provider resolution.

Line 27 resolves providers before this command reads or writes notification settings. config.Resolve returns ErrNoActiveProvider when no provider is configured. A fresh user therefore cannot run zero config notify --mode bell, --reset, or the read-only command.

Read and write the user notification block without requiring an active provider. Use the stored values and the default marker for output when provider resolution is unavailable.

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In `@internal/cli/config_notify.go` at line 27, Update the config notify command
around resolveCommandCenterConfig so reading, updating, resetting, and
displaying notification preferences does not require an active provider. Handle
ErrNoActiveProvider by continuing with stored notification values and the
default marker, while preserving normal provider resolution behavior when a
provider is configured.

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Outside diff comments:
In `@internal/cli/config_notify.go`:
- Line 27: Update the config notify command around resolveCommandCenterConfig so
reading, updating, resetting, and displaying notification preferences does not
require an active provider. Handle ErrNoActiveProvider by continuing with stored
notification values and the default marker, while preserving normal provider
resolution behavior when a provider is configured.

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• internal/cli/config_notify.go
• internal/cli/config_notify_test.go
• internal/cli/exec_test.go
• internal/config/resolver_test.go
• internal/config/writer.go
• internal/config/writer_test.go
• internal/tui/notify_select.go
• internal/tui/notify_select_test.go
• internal/tui/picker.go

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[gauravbhatia4601]

Addressed the advisory from the latest review in 703d9f5: zero config notify no longer resolves providers at all.

The command manages a user preference, so it now talks only to the user's own config file (config.UserNotify / config.SetNotify) — no config.Resolve call on any path. A brand-new user with no provider configured can read ((default) markers), set (--mode/--focus), read JSON, and --reset without ever needing ErrNoActiveProvider to be satisfiable first. Covered by TestRunConfigNotifyWorksWithoutAnyProviderConfigured, which walks all four paths against a config with no providers.

Side effect, consistent with the maintainer's direction on the write path: the read/display now reports the user's stored values rather than the project-merged view — a project config that overrides notify for one repo is not shown here (it still applies inside that project's sessions; this command manages the user-level preference).

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⚠️ Outside diff range comments (1)

internal/cli/config_notify.go (1)

160-160: 📐 Maintainability & Code Quality | 🟡 Minor | ⚡ Quick win

Describe reset as a TUI default, not a resolver default.

config.Resolve preserves empty notification fields. It does not apply both or unfocused. After --reset, non-TUI paths remain silent, while the TUI applies its effective defaults. Replace “resolver defaults apply” with wording that identifies the TUI behavior.

Proposed fix

-  zero config notify --reset         # clear config so the resolver defaults apply
+  zero config notify --reset         # clear stored values so TUI defaults apply
...
-      --reset                             Clear both fields so the resolver defaults apply
+      --reset                             Clear both stored fields so TUI defaults apply

Also applies to: 165-165

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In `@internal/cli/config_notify.go` at line 160, Update the reset help text in the
CLI usage strings near the config notification commands to describe that the TUI
applies its effective defaults, replacing the inaccurate claim that resolver
defaults apply; make the same wording change for both occurrences associated
with --reset.

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Outside diff comments:
In `@internal/cli/config_notify.go`:
- Line 160: Update the reset help text in the CLI usage strings near the config
notification commands to describe that the TUI applies its effective defaults,
replacing the inaccurate claim that resolver defaults apply; make the same
wording change for both occurrences associated with --reset.

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[Vasanthdev2004]

Approving at 703d9f5c. All three are closed, and I drove each one on both heads rather than reading the diff.

The default is out of the resolver, and the canary is back. exec_test.go's fixture no longer opts out, and TestRunExecUsesProjectConfigAndOpenAICompatibleProvider passes because zero exec is silent again rather than because it was told not to look. The TUI keeps its default through effectiveTUINotifyMode, which is the split I was hoping for. The webhook rider goes with it: Notify still returns early on an empty mode, so an unconfigured headless run sends nothing.

Blank stays blank. A user who has never touched notify running zero config notify --mode off:

15929bf4 -> {"mode":"off","focusMode":"unfocused"}   today's default pinned as a choice
703d9f5c -> {"mode":"off"}                            focusMode left blank

Seeding from config.UserNotify instead of the resolved value is the right fix, and not resolving providers at all is a better call than the one I suggested, since it also unblocks a brand-new user who has not configured a provider yet.

Every valid pair has a row. Twelve now, four modes by three focus modes. Narrowing the focus list back fails your own tests on preselected = "both unfocused", want the current pair "off always", which is the exact case I reported.

You also went past what I asked for in one place worth calling out: /notify <mode> with no focus token now preserves the focus from the user's own file rather than the in-session value. That was the same leak one layer down and I had only mentioned it in passing.

Seven checks green on this head. One process note, not about your code: the fork CI gate had reset on the new commits, so both runs were sitting at action_required with nothing but CodeRabbit having run. I checked the new commits touch no workflow or dependency files and released it. Worth knowing that a PR from a fork can look like it has passing checks when the real ones have not started.

[jatmn]

I found issues that need to be addressed before this is ready.

Overall guidance

The remaining problems are not five unrelated design failures. The main runtime issue comes from treating three different notification states as interchangeable:

State	Source	What it should control
Stored user preference	config.UserNotify(userConfigPath)	What a partial update preserves in the global user file, and what zero config notify reads/writes
Resolved startup policy	resolved.Notify passed through Options.Notify	The initial project-aware TUI policy after user and project config precedence is applied
Live session policy	m.notifyMode / m.notifyFocusMode and m.notifier	What /notify list calls active, what the picker preselects, and what the next notification actually uses

The user-file read introduced to fix project settings leaking into global config is correct for persistence, but it was then reused for active display, picker selection, and live reconfiguration, where it is the wrong source. Please fix that boundary once rather than patching each symptom independently: keep separate live and persisted values during a partial update, use live state for presentation and runtime behavior, and use stored user state only when deciding what to write globally.

The other findings are propagation gaps around that feature: the command was added without updating the existing completion registry; several help strings and changed comments still describe the earlier resolver-default design; the list branch bypasses the new argument validation; and two new test assignments fail the repository's advisory static check. A single contract pass over the command registry, help/copy, parser branches, and affected tests should close these together and avoid another round of one-at-a-time fixes.

Please preserve these accepted behaviors while making that pass:

• Do not put notification defaults back into config.Resolve; an unconfigured headless run must remain silent.
• Do not copy project-derived notify values into the user's global config.
• Keep zero config notify scoped to the stored user preference and independent of provider resolution.
• Keep the TUI's unconfigured effective default at both/unfocused.
• Keep explicit /notify <mode> <focus> choices applying immediately and persisting globally.
• Do not change webhook/sink eligibility or the existing Completion and AwaitingInput event semantics.

The regression coverage for the root fix should deliberately make the three states disagree. At minimum, cover a blank or different user notify block plus a project-resolved pair, then verify all of the following in the same contract matrix:

• /notify list reports the live resolved pair.
• Opening the picker preselects the live resolved pair, and Enter without navigation does not change it.
• /notify <mode> changes only the live mode, preserves the live focus, and persists the mode while preserving the user-file focus independently.
• /notify <mode> <focus> changes both live fields and persists both explicit values.
• Restart still applies normal user/project precedence; no project value has been copied into the global file.

Findings

• [P2] Keep the resolved live notify policy separate from the stored user preference
  internal/tui/notify_select.go:82
  The mode-only path currently uses one focus variable for two different contracts. When focus is omitted, it loads stored.FocusMode, assigns that to m.notifyFocusMode, and passes it to Notifier.Configure. Reading the user file is correct for deciding what the partial write should preserve, but it is incorrect for the live update when a project config supplied the active focus.

  For example, start with no user focus and a project-resolved policy of off/focused. newModel correctly initializes the model and notifier as off/focused. Running /notify bell should make the current session bell/focused while persisting user mode bell with user focus still blank. Instead, the current code configures bell/""; the notifier interprets blank as unfocused, so a mode-only command silently reverses when alerts fire.

  The same source confusion appears in notifyStateText and newNotifyPicker: both reread UserNotify instead of using the model's live fields. With the same project override, /notify list reports both/unfocused, the picker preselects both/unfocused, and pressing Enter applies that unrelated pair to the current session and writes it globally. If the user file has a different explicit pair, the UI reports that stored pair as active even though the project-resolved notifier is using another one.

  Please separate the live pair from the pair being persisted. Use the current in-session values for status, picker preselection, and omitted live fields; use the user-file values only to preserve omitted fields in the global write. Add mismatched user/project tests that assert both notifier behavior and persisted JSON, not only one side of the boundary. This keeps the maintainer-requested no-leak behavior without discarding project precedence at runtime.

• [P3] Add config notify to generated shell completions
  internal/cli/completions.go:43
completionContexts and every Bash, Zsh, Fish, PowerShell, and Elvish generator derive their command tree exclusively from completionRoot. That tree still declares config as a leaf. Consequently, zero config <TAB> has no notify candidate, and there is no config notify context that can offer --mode, --focus, --reset, --json, or help flags.

  Please extend the existing config node with the new child and its actual flags, following the current nested-command structure rather than introducing another completion path. Add a completion-tree assertion for the config and config notify contexts so future CLI additions cannot leave this supported discovery surface stale. Keep this change limited to reflecting commands and flags that already exist.

• [P3] Make every new notify help surface describe the policy that actually runs
  internal/cli/config_notify.go:147
  The new CLI help calls this a permission-prompt preference, although the same notifier policy also gates the TUI's turn-completion/ready notification. A user choosing off disables both event classes, and always affects both; the help should not imply that only prompts are controlled.

  The reset example and flag description at lines 160 and 165 also say resolver defaults apply. On this head, TestResolveNotifyUnconfiguredStaysEmpty deliberately requires the resolver to leave both fields blank: only the TUI supplies both/unfocused, while an unconfigured headless execution remains silent. Separately, the registered /notify usage in internal/tui/commands.go omits the valid focused option even though the handler, writer, CLI, and picker all support it. Changed comments around effectiveTUINotifyMode and affected tests still use the old “resolver default” wording as well.

  Please make one narrow terminology pass: describe this as the stored global notification preference, state that it controls both ready/completion and needs-input alerts, describe reset as returning the TUI to its effective default while leaving unconfigured headless behavior silent, and list all three focus values. Update stale comments in the changed surface at the same time. Do not change resolution, event, or sink behavior to make the old wording true.

• [P3] Validate list arguments before returning its state view
  internal/tui/notify_select.go:66
  The handler returns the state view whenever the first token is list, without requiring it to be the only token. /notify list junk is therefore reported as a successful list operation rather than a usage error. This differs from sibling /theme, /effort, and /style handlers, which recognize only an exact list, and from the new notify mode path, which rejects excess input.

  Please require exactly one token for the list form and add a regression case such as /notify list junk. Preserve bare /notify opening the picker, exact /notify list showing state, one-token modes, and two-token mode/focus updates.

• [P3] Keep the added tests clean under the repository's advisory static check
  internal/tui/notify_select_test.go:72
make lint-static reports SA4006 here and again at line 85. In both cases, the model returned by handleNotifyCommand is assigned to m, but that returned model is never read before m is overwritten or the test ends; only the persisted file is asserted. These warnings are on new lines in this PR, so they add to the advisory backlog even though the runtime assertions pass.

  Please discard the unused returned model values, or assert the returned live state if that is part of the intended regression. Do not remove the persisted-file assertions: those are the load-bearing part that proves partial updates do not copy resolved project/default values into user config. Re-run the focused TUI tests under -race and make lint-static after the root-cause tests are added.