Overview

Wrap a long-running command, wait for completion, and notify the channels you care about.

brb is a small command wrapper for terminal work you do not want to watch in real time. It runs your command, waits for it to finish, sends a completion event to one or more channels, and exits with the same code as the wrapped command.

How It Works

  1. brb loads your global config.
  2. It resolves the selected channels from default_channels or repeated --channel flags.
  3. It runs the wrapped command with inherited stdin, stdout, and stderr.
  4. It builds a completion event with command, status, timing, exit code, working directory, and host information.
  5. It delivers that event to each selected channel independently.
  6. It prints a delivery summary and exits with the wrapped command's exit code.

Platform Support

ChannelLinuxmacOSWindows
desktopSupported with notify-sendSupported with osascriptNot implemented yet
webhookSupportedSupportedSupported
customSupportedSupportedSupported

Desktop Notifications Depend On System Tools

On macOS, desktop uses osascript. On Linux, it uses notify-send. If that command is missing or fails, only that channel fails; the wrapped command result is still preserved.

Quick Start

Install Be Right Back, initialise the global config, and send your first notification in a few minutes.

On this page

How It WorksPlatform Support