How I Added Sound Effects to Claude Code with Hooks

TLDR#

Claude Code has a hooks system that lets you run shell commands on lifecycle events. I wired up Age of Empires sound effects to four key moments: session start, prompt submission, task completion, and context compaction. Now my terminal sounds like a medieval battlefield and I love it.

Why Sounds?#

I spend a lot of time in Claude Code. Sometimes I send a prompt and switch to another window while it works. The problem is I never know when it’s done. I could keep checking, but that breaks my flow.

I wanted audio cues. Something that tells me “hey, I’m done” without me having to look. And if I’m going to add sounds, why not make them fun?

How Claude Code Hooks Work#

Claude Code lets you define hooks in your settings.json file at ~/.claude/settings.json. Hooks fire on specific lifecycle events:

SessionStart: When a new Claude Code session begins
UserPromptSubmit: Right after you hit enter on a prompt
Stop: When Claude finishes its response
PreCompact: Before context compaction happens (when the conversation gets too long)

Each hook runs a shell command. That’s it. Simple and powerful.

If you’re new to hooks, I covered the basics in my post about setting up Claude Code notification hooks . This post goes in a different direction: instead of desktop notifications, we’re adding sound effects.

For a broader look at what Claude Code can do, see my overview of the full Claude Code feature stack .

My Setup#

I put four MP3 files in ~/.claude/sounds/ and used afplay (macOS built-in audio player) to play them. Here’s my full hooks config:

// ~/.claude/settings.json
{
  "hooks": {
    "SessionStart": [
      {
        "matcher": "startup|clear",
        "hooks": [
          {
            "type": "command",
            "command": "afplay ~/.claude/sounds/horn.mp3 &"
          }
        ]
      }
    ],
    "UserPromptSubmit": [
      {
        "hooks": [
          {
            "type": "command",
            "command": "afplay ~/.claude/sounds/yes.mp3 &"
          }
        ]
      }
    ],
    "Stop": [
      {
        "hooks": [
          {
            "type": "command",
            "command": "afplay ~/.claude/sounds/allhail.mp3 &"
          }
        ]
      }
    ],
    "PreCompact": [
      {
        "hooks": [
          {
            "type": "command",
            "command": "afplay ~/.claude/sounds/wololo.mp3 &"
          }
        ]
      }
    ]
  }
}

The & at the end is important. It runs afplay in the background so the sound doesn’t block Claude Code from continuing.

The Sound Choices#

All sounds are from Age of Empires. Here’s why I picked each one:

Event	Sound	Why
SessionStart	`horn.mp3`	A battle horn. The session begins, time to work.
UserPromptSubmit	`yes.mp3`	The villager “yes” response. Claude acknowledges your command.
Stop	`allhail.mp3`	”All hail!” when Claude finishes. Victory.
PreCompact	`wololo.mp3`	The priest conversion sound. Your context is being… converted.

The wololo for context compaction is my favorite. If you’ve played Age of Empires, you know what happens when a priest starts chanting “wololo”: things change. That’s exactly what context compaction does. It transforms your conversation to fit the context window.

Bonus: Touch Files for Status Line#

You might have noticed my actual config also touches files like touch ~/.claude/.claude-done. I use these as signals for my custom status line script . The status line reads these files to show the current Claude Code state in my terminal prompt.

How to Set This Up Yourself#

Create the sounds directory: mkdir -p ~/.claude/sounds
Drop your MP3 files in there (any short sound clips work)
Add the hooks config to ~/.claude/settings.json
Restart Claude Code

💪 Tip

On Linux, replace afplay with aplay or paplay. On Windows WSL, you can use powershell.exe -c (New-Object Media.SoundPlayer "path").PlaySync().

Conclusion#

Claude Code hooks run shell commands on lifecycle events
You can use afplay on macOS to play sounds in the background
Age of Empires sounds make the terminal more fun
The & suffix is key so sounds don’t block execution
Touch files can signal other tools like status line scripts

Small things like audio feedback make tools feel more alive. It took five minutes to set up and now I actually enjoy waiting for Claude to finish.