guide / compared

drip vs terminal-notifier vs osascript vs alerter.

All four show something on a Mac from the shell. terminal-notifier, osascript and alerter post to Notification Center, so they follow Focus and stay in its list; drip draws its own card from the notch, needs no permission, times commands and comes with hooks for coding agents.

drip ok "build finished"                                        # drip
terminal-notifier -title build -message finished                # terminal-notifier
osascript -e 'display notification "finished" with title "build"'  # osascript
alerter --title build --message finished                        # alerter

Compared

	drip	terminal-notifier	osascript	alerter
Shows	its own card, from the notch or the top edge of the screen	a Notification Center banner	a Notification Center banner	a Notification Center alert that stays until dismissed
Permission	none; Automation of Ghostty for cards from another machine, asked once	Notifications, asked once	Notifications, for Script Editor	Notifications
Focus and Do Not Disturb	shows anyway; `drip pause` holds cards	follows Focus	follows Focus	follows Focus
Kept afterwards	`drip history`	Notification Center's list	Notification Center's list	Notification Center's list
Buttons and answers	`--yes`, `--no`: exits 0, 1 or 5	`-action`, `-reply` (version 3): prints the answer	none in a notification	actions, a dropdown or a reply: prints the answer
Wraps a command	`drip run`: status, exit code and time	no	no	no
Coding agents	`drip setup claude`, `codex`, `gemini`	a hook you write	a hook you write	a hook you write
Install	`brew install jrnxf/tap/drip`	`brew install terminal-notifier`	built into macOS	`brew install vjeantet/tap/alerter`
Runs on	macOS 13+	macOS 10.14+	macOS	macOS 13+

None of the four runs on Linux.

Which to pick

drip when you want to see at a glance how a build, deploy or agent turn went, without granting a permission or digging in Notification Center.
terminal-notifier when you want notifications that follow Focus and stay in Notification Center's list.
osascript when you can install nothing: it is already on every Mac.
alerter when a script needs a typed reply or a choice from a dropdown.

FAQ

Is drip a replacement for terminal-notifier?

For alerts about builds, deploys, tests and coding agents, yes. If you want notifications to wait in Notification Center's list and follow Focus, terminal-notifier does that and drip does not.

Why is drip not in Notification Center?

So it needs no permission and can show at the notch, where a glance finds it. The cost is that it does not follow Focus; drip pause holds cards for a while instead.

Can I use drip and terminal-notifier together?

Yes. They do not touch each other's settings, so a script can call either.